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Singapore’s Gini coefficient for wealth is estimated at 0.55.

Published Feb 09, 2026, 03:19 PM

Updated Feb 09, 2026, 11:11 PM

SINGAPORE – For the first time, the Government has published a measure of wealth inequality here, and it is higher than income inequality.

This is according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF) in an occasional paper that also found social mobility had slowed.

Singapore’s Gini coefficient for wealth is estimated at 0.55, compared with the Gini coefficient for income, which is 0.38 after taxes and transfers.

While income inequality looks at the distribution of income across a population, wealth inequality looks at the distribution of assets and liabilities, such as property, mortgages, stocks and savings.

Professor Irene Ng from the National University of Singapore social work department welcomed the introduction of the wealth Gini coefficient, saying it better reflects the state of inequality in society.

She added that wealth inequality tends to be higher than income inequality as the rich have more ways to gain wealth than the poor.

As the Government works to keep social mobility alive, wealth inequality has come under the spotlight as one of the growing factors that entrench privilege and make it hard for people to move up in life.

At 0.55, Singapore’s wealth Gini coefficient is comparable with those of countries including the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany, where wealth Gini coefficients are estimated to be in the range of 0.6 to 0.7, said MOF in the paper released on Feb 9

But the paper also noted that such cross-country comparisons are “not straightforward” due to differences in the availability of data, asset coverage and social security systems. 

Measuring wealth and wealth inequality has been challenging for governments worldwide, with assets such as equity in private companies and overseas holdings notoriously difficult to track and value.

Financial confidentiality provisions further constrain data collection.

That is why wealth inequality – including in Singapore – is likely to be underestimated, since wealth at the top end is typically under-reported, said MOF.

In Singapore, the wealth Gini coefficient is derived from data in the latest available household expenditure survey from 2023, which had asked about non-owner-occupied home equity, or investment properties that are typically rented out.

This is a significant source of wealth for households in Singapore, said MOF.

The data is further bolstered by administrative data including Central Provident Fund (CPF) and property data.

MOF said most households here have positive wealth, adding that “home ownership and policies that support wealth accumulation have resulted in a very small share of the population with negative wealth”. 

Across all income levels, home equity and CPF balances make up most of a household’s wealth. 

Home equity, which is the value of property owned by households after deducting outstanding mortgages, forms over half of the average household wealth across all quintiles in Singapore.

This is the case even for households in the bottom 20 per cent, unlike in countries such as the UK and Australia, where such households have zero or negative home equity on average, noted MOF.

Another key wealth component is CPF balances, which constitute about 22 per cent of household wealth for all resident households in Singapore.

Dr Mathew Mathews, a principal research fellow and head of the Institute of Policy Studies’ Social Lab, said wealth inequality affects the starting point of children.

“Parents with more assets can invest more in children and buffer shocks, which allows them to reproduce mobility in subsequent generations,” he said.

Income and wealth can also transmit intergenerational advantages or disadvantages, said Prof Ng, to the extent that they determine a person’s social networks and the schools parents can send their children to.

On social mobility, MOF said Singapore has done relatively well in sustaining absolute intergenerational mobility, with a high proportion of children in the lower- to middle-income households earning more than their fathers.

But relative intergenerational mobility has slowed as the economy matures, it added.

This is evident in the growing proportion of children born to the poorest households who have found it hard to transcend their station.

MOF studied children born in three time periods: 1978 to 1982, 1982 to 1986, and 1985 to 1989. In these groups, 24.2 per cent, 25.1 per cent and 25.3 per cent, respectively, ended up in the lowest 20 per cent income bracket – the same as their fathers. 

This suggests that it has become harder for children to break out of the poverty trap over the years.

Dr Mathews said that as the economy matures, family background becomes “more influential over time” in affecting social mobility.

He suggested that there is a need to focus on helping families facing multiple disadvantages so that the wealth and income gaps do not compound over time.

Noting that the Government has paid close attention to wealth inequality, MOF said “wealth can become entrenched across generations, as households with greater resources are better able to invest in and transfer assets to their children”.

It added that Singapore’s housing and retirement policies, through the Housing Board and CPF, are tilted towards those with fewer resources, and have played an important role in moderating wealth inequality.

Tham Yuen-C is senior political correspondent at The Straits Times, where she covers news about local politics.

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