The old-school imperialist ambitions of U.S. President Donald Trump have dominated the World Economic Forum in Davos, overshadowing other common themes surrounding the event, such as the impact of global inequality. Davos was conceived as a gathering of leading international business and political figures, and for decades, various non-governmental groups and activists have used the forum to expose the shameful practices of the global economy amidst private jets, helicopters, and luxury hotels overlooking ski slopes.
Looking at Spain from this perspective reveals the extent to which recent economic growth has been accompanied by a process of wealth concentration and, consequently, a widening gap. The wealthy are increasingly numerous and have greater financial clout than before. Therefore, experts urge not only to examine how much the economy is improving from a traditional macroeconomic perspective, but also how wealth is being accumulated and who benefits from this accumulation. Wealth concentration is not a temporary phenomenon, but a structural one, and its effects extend far beyond the statistics.
One of the best indicators for observing this phenomenon in Spain is the wealth tax data compiled by the Tax Agency. It’s not a perfect snapshot—there are tax breaks, deductions and tax planning strategies—but it is one of the few official sources that makes it possible to track the evolution of wealth declared by the richest people in the country.
Between 2011 and 2023, the last year with available data, the number of taxpayers filing wealth tax returns jumped 75% to 228,000, while their combined wealth rose from nearly €450 billion to €934 billion, a 107% increase. This is significant growth, but much more moderate in the lower income brackets than at the top. The wealthiest group, comprised of individuals who declare more than €30 million annually, grew from 352 to 865 people and nearly quadrupled their wealth: from €37.3 billion in 2011 to €146.8 billion in 2023. This is by far the most dramatic increase among all the groups analyzed, at almost €170 million per person.
The tax data aligns with statistics analyzing overall wealth, which also reveal the reality of the poorest segments of the population. The World Inequality Lab, based in Paris, ranks Spain among the European countries with the greatest wealth inequality, a trend that shows no signs of improving in recent years. The wealthiest 10% now control more than 57% of total wealth, and within this privileged group, the top 1% accumulates around a quarter of the total, a proportion that has increased since the financial crisis.
Oxfam Intermón puts the finishing touch with its estimates presented at the forum held in Switzerland, which put the number of billionaires in Spain at 33 in 2025. Judging by the statistics, their combined fortune of €197.5 billion may not have been fully declared to the Spanish Tax Agency.
All these figures, reflects Nuria Badenes, a researcher at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, lead us to consider the concept of economic polarization, “which has a closer relationship with the emergence of social conflicts than inequality.” This polarization, marked by the widening gap and the gradual disappearance of the middle class, intensifies social and political conflict by dividing society into groups with opposing interests, “generating distrust in institutions and fueling extreme positions.”
The Bank of Spain’s Household Finance Survey reinforces this diagnosis. Although average household wealth has increased in recent years, the median—corresponding to the household located right in the center of the distribution—is growing less rapidly, indicating that the bulk of the increase is concentrated in the hands of a minority.
Olga Cantó, a professor of economics at the University of Alcalá and researcher at Equalitas, emphasizes the historical evolution of this gap. She explains that the poorest half of the population has lost wealth compared to the levels they had at the beginning of the century, while gains have been concentrated in the wealthiest 5%, and particularly in the top 1%. In her view, this process is closely linked to the 2008 financial crisis, first, and then to the increasing difficulties in accessing first-time homeownership and the loss of savings capacity for a significant portion of the population.
During the 2008 crisis, wealth inequality increased significantly. Miguel Artola, a researcher at the Carlos III University of Madrid, attributes this to the fact that the drop in housing prices affected middle-class families more severely, “while the wealthiest, with diversified assets, were better able to weather the crisis” of 2008.
Later, this unequal distribution of wealth between households has also been key. While those with middle and lower incomes concentrate their assets in their primary residence, now increasingly inaccessible, the wealthiest diversify into various types of financial, business, and real estate assets. This difference explains why wealth inequality is much greater than income inequality and why it tends to persist over time, benefiting those at the top.
The change in recent years, Cantó continues, is related to the “financialization of the economy and the different composition of wealth.” Wealthier households are increasingly concentrating financial and business assets, capable of generating high returns, while the rest have less room to diversify. Taxation, which taxes earned income more heavily than income from capital or wealth, doesn’t help either.
Risk of power capture
The social and political consequences of this concentration are profound. Cantó warns that the extreme accumulation of wealth is not only a distributional problem, but also a democratic one. When a very small minority concentrates a growing share of wealth, “its capacity to influence political and economic decisions increases, generating a risk of power capture,” she asserts.
At the same time, the loss of net wealth for large segments of the population reduces social resilience when times get tough. Wealth acts as a crucial buffer against economic shocks. If a majority lacks the assets to sustain their consumption during periods of crisis, society as a whole becomes more vulnerable. This fragility has political repercussions: the perception that the wealthiest accumulate ever more while paying relatively less in taxes erodes support for the tax system and generates disaffection among the middle and lower classes. In the long term, “this perception of future economic insecurity fuels polarization and can favor the rise of the far right,” Cantó points out.
Experts are calling for the use of public sector tools to address the wealth gap, or at least partially mitigate it. When designing taxes, governments “have a responsibility to consider principles beyond simply raising revenue, such as reducing inequality,” argues Badenes. Currently, this isn’t happening, partly due to a lack of ambition. Cantó maintains that eliminating the wealth gap entirely through taxation is unfeasible, but that well-designed tax policies can gradually reduce inequality. Failure to do so, they warn, means accepting that wealth concentration will continue to grow.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition
