The wealth of households in Spain rose in 2025 to 11 trillion dollars (9.45 trillion euros), placing the country, along with Poland, Ireland, and Sweden, among the economies with the most intense growth of net family wealth, according to the latest report from the McKinsey Global Institute on economic balance and global investment.
At the same time, net wealth per resident in Spain increased by 6% in nominal terms in the last year, while global economic wealth reached a historic high of nearly 1,800 trillion dollars (1,546 trillion euros), above the 1,700 trillion (1,460 trillion euros) recorded in the previous year.
The total value of family wealth worldwide stood at around 570 trillion dollars (490 trillion euros), although more than half of that increase, 58%, comes from capital gains "on paper," mainly due to the appreciation of assets above inflation.
The document, titled "The Global Balance of 2026: Imbalance and Divergence," examines the trajectory of wealth, indebtedness, and assets in 23 countries, including Spain, which together represent nearly 70% of global GDP, and contrasts the evolution of financial markets with the real economy.
The McKinsey analysis warns that the eurozone is heading towards a possible period of prolonged economic stagnation, conditioned by very low productivity growth, contained consumption, and a high household savings rate, which reached 15.1% in 2025.
In the entire monetary union, average wealth barely changed compared to the previous year, although the evolution of assets was uneven. In the United States, the strength of the stock markets strongly boosted household wealth gains, while in Europe, the correction in housing prices reduced wealth in real terms. In this context, "per capita" wealth fell by 2.6% in Germany and 1.5% in France, with the decline in real estate assets as a determining factor.
The report highlights as one of the main brakes on European growth the deficit of private investment compared to the United States. The difference is around 700 billion dollars a year (601 billion euros), equivalent to about 3 percentage points of the region's GDP.
Due to this gap, European productive capital —which encompasses infrastructure, machinery, equipment, and intellectual property— remains at lower levels than the global average and below the records prior to the pandemic.
Despite the weakness of investment, the study highlights as a strength that the debt of households and non-financial companies in the Eurozone remains within more balanced ranges and closer to the average of the last 25 years than in other major economies.
Spain strengthens net investment
According to the McKinsey Global Institute, the net worth of Spanish households was around 11 trillion dollars (9.45 trillion euros) in 2025. Spain ranked among the countries with the highest increase in family wealth measured in dollars, with double-digit growth, while net worth per capita advanced by 6% in nominal terms compared to the previous year.
In parallel, Spain was positioned, along with Poland, Sweden, the United States, and Italy, among the economies where net investment rates exceeded their long-term historical averages in 2025.
This dynamic contrasts with that of countries like Germany, Ireland, and Australia, where net investment was negative, reflecting that capital spending fell below replacement needs, that the value of assets decreased, or a combination of both factors.
On the fiscal front, Spain's gross public debt continued above 100% of GDP in 2025, a threshold it shares with other advanced economies such as Japan, Italy, the United States, France, Canada, Belgium, and the United Kingdom.
Regarding the housing market, the value of household real estate assets relative to GDP fell by about 10 percentage points in 2025 compared to 2024. The ratio between residential real estate wealth and GDP continued to approach its average of the last 25 years, although it still remains above that level.
"Spain is at a moment of momentum with an economy capable of continuing to raise living standards," said McKinsey senior partner Joseba Eceiza, who emphasizes that maintaining the pulse on productive investment and promoting competitiveness measures "is essential to consolidate productivity growth and ensure that the value of assets is supported by the real generation of income in a context of higher financial costs."
In line with this diagnosis, the report identifies the reinforcement of productive investment as one of the key levers to accelerate productivity in the eurozone, a challenge that will require new reforms in an environment of higher interest rates than in the pre-pandemic stage.
An increasingly unbalanced global balance
The McKinsey study concludes that, by 2025, the gap between financial markets and the real economy was driven mainly by the United States and China.
In the United States, equities reached historic highs: the market capitalization of listed companies reached 2.4 times the value of their net assets and 3.7 times GDP. The advance was concentrated in a limited number of firms; more than half of the growth of the S&P 500 between 2021 and 2025 was explained by the so-called "Magnificent Seven," linked to the rise of AI.
In parallel, private sector profits reached a peak of 9.2% of U.S. GDP, well above the average of 5.9% recorded before the year 2000.
In China, the economy faces a partial adjustment of its balance due to the continued decline in real estate valuations. To compensate for the lower residential spending of households, authorities have intensified public spending and investment through state-owned enterprises, raising the debt of non-financial companies to 80% of corporate real assets (1.7 times GDP), well above the 50% global average.
Additionally, the money supply in cash and bank deposits in China increased in the last year by the equivalent of 10 percentage points of GDP.
"In a context of global divergence, the growth of wealth during the last year has been supported by stock valuations in equity markets and not by actual capital formation," pointed out senior partner Juan Antonio Bahillo, who notes that companies and institutions "must closely monitor the key factors of each economy to anticipate turns."
In light of these tensions, the report outlines four possible trajectories for the coming years: an acceleration of productivity, a period of persistent inflation, a return to prolonged stagnation, or a sharp market adjustment with price declines and recession.
Of the four scenarios, the study concludes that only an acceleration of productivity would allow sustaining the high valuations with real economic growth and, at the same time, preserve wealth.