Accuracy and reliability

Overall accuracy

The accuracy varies depending on which wealth component is considered. The value of cars, properties, civil service pensions, and unlisted shares are all estimated using a number of broad model assumptions. The transition from the old to the new property public valuations based on 2024 data suggests that housing values nationwide were underestimated by around 4 percent in 2023. The underestimation was larger in municipalities with strong price increases, and vice versa. It likely arose as the gap between public property valuations and market prices gradually widened between 2014 and 2024.

The quality of the financial data and debt information is generally good, as most of the data are verified by the Danish Tax Agency (SKAT) due to their relevance for tax control. Pension wealth is reported by pension companies and is also considered to be of high quality following verification by Statistics Denmark and the Danish National Bank. Coverage of Danes’ foreign-held assets may be incomplete. Only assets that can be allocated to individuals are included in the statistics. This means that cash, cryptocurrency, the value of household goods, wealth hidden abroad, and part of business assets are not included. For confidentiality reasons, an artificial cap of DKK 2.07 billion per individual net wealth has been applied in 2024, resulting in an underestimation of the largest fortunes by a total of DKK 238 billion. Total net wealth among Danish households amounted to DKK 9,507 billion in 2023.

The estimation of withdrawals from retirement savings accounts (aldersopsparing) is uncertain. The models used for this purpose have difficulty distinguishing investment losses from withdrawals, and small partial withdrawals—measured as a low percentage of the account—are particularly expected to be underreported.

Sampling error

Not relevant for these statistics.

Non-sampling error

There has always been a slight under coverage of properties without a final valuation at the time of data extraction, and this under coverage has been increasing since 2019 due to delays in the new property valuation systems. From November 2025 (from 2023-data), the problem has been greatly reduced through imputations. In addition, the new ownership registers lacked ownership history for newly traded properties, resulting in partially missing ownership information for around 10,000 properties in 2023. The missing ownership history has been corrected from 2024 onward. A sharp increase in the value of foreign properties—from DKK 45 billion in 2022 to DKK 75 billion in 2024—suggests that there was significant undercoverage of Danes’ foreign real estate holdings up to 2022.

The valuation of homes, used cars, and especially unlisted shares is subject to considerable uncertainty. The value of pension wealth is calculated based on assumptions about expected remaining life expectancy and retirement age.

Unregistered assets—such as the value of household goods, hidden foreign assets, cryptocurrency, and cash holdings—are not included in the statistics.

Quality management

Statistics Denmark follows the recommendations on organisation and management of quality given in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and the implementation guidelines given in the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF). A Working Group on Quality and a central quality assurance function have been established to continuously carry through control of products and processes.

Quality assurance

Statistics Denmark follows the principles in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and uses the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF) for the implementation of the principles. This involves continuous decentralized and central control of products and processes based on documentation following international standards. The central quality assurance function reports to the Working Group on Quality. Reports include suggestions for improvement that are assessed, decided and subsequently implemented.

Quality assessment

The quality of data varies dependent on the type of component. Financial components are assumed to collectively be of high quality as data that are relevant to tax payments are verified by the tax administration albeit the distinction between the individual components may not be perfect, if the distinction does not serve an administrative purpose. But incorrect codes have been utilized – especially in areas that do not have direct administrative importance. This could have as consequences that sums move between individual components if the person registering the data uses and invalid code. The ladder should not affect the total assets or debt. While ownership is based on solid register data, the values of houses and cars are imputed based on sales prices and used car prices. These evaluations might be uncertain. Finally note, that not all types of wealth and debt are covered.

Data revision - policy

Statistics Denmark revises published figures in accordance with the Revision Policy for Statistics Denmark. The common procedures and principles of the Revision Policy are for some statistics supplemented by a specific revision practice.

Data revision practice

The wealth statistics are published in November following the end of the year. As part of this publication, the previous year's data is revised, so that it is based on the most recent available data foundation.

Statistics on pension wealth is published in June and revised in August/September if there are better data available.

The statistics remains under development. Revisions can occur to the degree that we post-publication receive significantly better data or that we make improvements of the statistics. Latest a major revision was done in December of 2022. Read about it in this paper on the revision, Danish only In august 2022 the distribution of pension bonuses was revised in the statistics on pension wealth. In 2020 the value of civil servant pensions and shared housing communities (andelsboliger) was revised. In all cases the revisions has been carried out until 2014, where possible.