Wealth distribution in Estonia: where does your salary rank?

How much do you need to earn in Estonia to be among the top earners, and how much of the wealth is in the hands of the richest? entity.ee combined three sources: Statistics Estonia's wage and social survey data on income, Eesti Pank's household wealth survey, and its own calculation from the business register of who owns Estonian companies — individuals, other companies, the state or foreign owners. Income and wealth are not the same thing: a wage shows how much someone earns a month, wealth what has accumulated over the years.

Wages: how much the top tenth earns

According to Statistics Estonia, the median gross monthly wage in the second quarter of 2026 was €1,840 and the average wage €2,243. The average is higher than the median because high wages pull it up. To be among the best-paid tenth, a gross wage of at least €4,038 a month was needed, and at least €3,043 to be in the top fifth. A tenth of employees earned less than €875. The thresholds for the top 10% and the bottom 10% thus differ almost 4.6-fold. Over the year these wage thresholds rose by 5–7 percent, least at the top.

Where does your salary rank?

Enter your gross salary to see what share of employees earn more than you — among all employees or in your own field. The same calculator is also on a separate page: Salary TOP calculator.

Household incomes

Household incomes are compared using equivalised disposable income, which takes household size into account: the first adult counts fully, each further member aged 14 or over as half and a younger child as 0.3 of a person. According to Statistics Estonia's latest data (2024), its median was €17,146 a year, or about €1,430 a month. To be in the highest-income fifth, equivalised income had to exceed €27,360 a year (about €2,280 a month); the relative poverty line was €10,287 a year. The average income of the top fifth was 5.1 times that of the bottom fifth, and the income Gini coefficient was 0.309. Inequality has decreased compared with ten years ago: in 2014 these figures were 6.2 and 0.348.

The composition of income depends greatly on its level. In 2024 the average net income per household member was €1,173 a month, €2,775 in the highest-income tenth and €339 in the lowest. The top tenth thus receives almost a quarter (24 percent) of all household net income, the bottom tenth less than 3 percent. In the lower-income groups the main income is pensions and other transfers; from the middle upwards it is wages. In the top tenth wages make up 75 percent of income, but self-employment and other income — which includes dividends, interest and rental income among other things — also jumps: €423 a month or 15 percent, compared with 4–8 percent in the other groups.

Wealth distribution by household

Wealth is distributed much more unequally than income. According to Eesti Pank's 2024 Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), the median household net wealth (assets minus loans) was €103,300, up from €66,200 in 2021; adjusted for inflation it grew by 16 percent. The wealthiest tenth of households held 51.6 percent and the wealthiest five percent 39.8 percent of all net wealth, the less wealthy half about 9 percent. The lower limit of the wealthiest tenth was 3.9 times the median, or about €400,000. The net wealth Gini coefficient was 0.655, about twice that of income. For most households the largest asset is their home; business assets are the most unequally distributed (Gini 0.906).

The wealthiest tend to be under-represented in surveys. The European Central Bank's experimental Distributional Wealth Accounts (DWA), which combine the survey with national accounts, put the share of Estonia's wealthiest tenth at 55.3 percent and that of the less wealthy half at 8.0 percent of net wealth as of the first quarter of 2026. For the euro area as a whole the top tenth's share was 57.2 percent at the end of 2025, so Estonia's wealth inequality is close to the euro area average. What sets Estonia apart is the large share of business wealth: in 2021 it made up 29 percent of Estonian households' real assets, compared with 13 percent on average in the euro area.

Who owns Estonian companies

Who owns Estonian companies? Based on the equity in the 2024 annual reports of 214,489 companies, entity.ee calculated who ultimately holds it. Total equity was €99.5 billion, but part of it is counted twice, because a parent company's equity also includes the value of its subsidiaries. After removing that, €84 billion remains. Equity was divided among owners by the size of their stake, and stakes held through Estonian companies (holding companies, parents) were traced to the ultimate owner. 53 percent, or €44.3 billion, belongs to individuals resident in Estonia, 30 percent (€25.0 billion) to foreign companies and 7 percent (€6.0 billion) to the state and municipalities. Almost 4 percent belongs to people with an Estonian personal ID code living abroad, including e-residents, and 2 percent to foreign individuals. The owner of the rest is unknown (mainly small shareholders of listed companies) or it belongs to non-profits, foundations and co-operatives.

Among foreign-owned companies, the largest equity is held by Volkswagen International Estonia AS, Swedbank AS and AS SEB Pank, whose shares are wholly owned by foreign parent companies. Among state-owned companies the largest are Eesti Energia AS and Elering AS; the state owns 67 percent of aktsiaselts Tallinna Sadam (Port of Tallinn).

How business wealth is split among owners

There are 170,894 individuals resident in Estonia with a stake in at least one company that has filed its 2024 report — about one in six residents aged 20 or over. Most stakes are small: the median is €10,300, the lower limit of the wealthiest tenth €247,000, of the wealthiest percent €3.2 million and of the wealthiest 0.1 percent €28.5 million. The wealthiest tenth (17,089 people) hold 90 percent of individuals' business wealth, the wealthiest percent (1,709 people) 63 percent and the wealthiest 0.1 percent (171 people) 35 percent. The bottom half of owners holds less than 1 percent. 5,422 people have business wealth of at least €1 million, 538 at least €10 million and 36 at least €100 million. For 10,509 owners the combined equity of their companies is negative.

A significant part of business wealth is held by individuals indirectly. Almost 30 percent of individuals' business wealth is held through another Estonian company, usually a personal holding company, and almost 40 percent for the wealthiest percent. This is common in Estonia because retained profits are not subject to income tax, and with a stake of at least 10 percent a dividend received from a subsidiary can be distributed further without new income tax. Most owners, however, own a single company: of owners with an Estonian ID code, 149,389 hold a direct stake in one company and about 11,700 in three or more.

Business wealth is therefore far more concentrated than household wealth as a whole: the wealthiest tenth holds about half of household net wealth, but 90 percent among company owners. Most people's main asset is their home, which is more evenly distributed, whereas companies belong to a smaller share of the population and their value is concentrated in a few companies. The figures are not directly comparable, though: Eesti Pank's survey measures households' total net wealth, whereas the entity.ee calculation covers only individuals' stakes in companies at their book value.

Methodology and limitations

Equity is an accounting (book) value, not a market value. The market value of fast-growing technology and listed companies can be several times higher, and real estate may be carried at cost. The calculation covers companies with a 2024 annual report in the business register and owners according to the register's open data as of late October 2026. Double counting was reduced by assuming that a parent's investment in a subsidiary equals the subsidiary's equity; this may somewhat understate the parent's own assets. Jointly owned stakes (for example, those of spouses) were split equally among the owners. Stakes held through foreign companies cannot be traced to the ultimate owner, so Estonians' holdings through foreign companies are also counted under foreign companies. Estonian residents are people with an Estonian ID code whose country of residence in the register is Estonia or not stated. The household surveys and Statistics Estonia's income data are sample-based and subject to statistical error.