Inequality in the distribution of funds of Croatian citizens continued to trend down in 2025. In the observed period, the number of citizens with a positive deposit balance in credit institutions (banks and housing savings banks) increased, as did the total amounts of deposits in all ten decile distribution classes. The amount of deposits in the lower part of distribution (from first to third decile class) and in the upper middle part of distribution (from seventh to ninth decile class) increased the most in relative terms, while in absolute terms growth was strongest in the top decile class. At the same time, the share of deposits of citizens from the upper middle part of the distribution continued to increase (mostly between 7th and 9th decile class), while the share of those from the very top of the distribution decreased.
This release is an amendment to the indicators first published in the release as of 11 June 2026.[1]
Since 2023, the Croatian National Bank annually collects data on the balance of funds held by citizens in individual accounts in credit institutions.
This covers the funds of all known holders, resident natural persons, regardless of whether they are in transaction, savings or time accounts. The standard reference date is the end of the year, with the exception of the first collection for which the reference date was 30 June 2023. Although they provide a complete picture of deposits in credit institutions, these data are not the same as the indicators of wealth inequality, as they do not include other forms of financial assets (e.g., units in investment funds, shares, bonds, etc.) or non-financial assets such as real estate. In addition, aggregation is possible only at the level of individual account holders and not at the household level, so direct comparison with usual analyses of income and wealth inequality is not possible. Finally, the analysis covers all citizens with a positive balance in at least one account, regardless of possible simultaneous liabilities to banks.
At the end of 2025, almost 3.5 million citizens had a positive balance in at least one account, an increase by 42 thousand compared to the year before (Table 1). Of the total increase in the number of citizens with deposits, 25 thousand are accounted for by the net inflow of citizens with newly opened accounts and 17.4 thousand by the net inflow of citizens who brought their account balance back from overdraft or zero to a positive balance (Table 3).
The total amount of deposits increased from EUR 38.12bn at the end of 2024 to EUR 40.75bn at the end of 2025, which is an increase by EUR 2.6bn or 6.9%. Funds increased in all parts of the distribution last year (Figure 2). The relative increase was more pronounced in the lowest and upper middle decile classes[2]. Thus, in the first three decile classes, total funds increased by 14.7%, while in the classes from sixth to eighth decile they increased by 11.3%. By comparison, funds in third to sixth decile class rose by 6%, while in the highest decile class this growth stood at 5.5%, with the amount of deposits for the top 1% increasing by 4.4%. Observed in absolute terms and by deciles, the strongest increase was recorded in tenth and ninth decile class (EUR 1.53bn and EUR 577m, respectively). Within the top decile class, the increase in the 95th to 99th percentile class and the 90th to 95th percentile class stood at EUR 560m and EUR 480m, respectively, while in the upper percentile the total amount increased by EUR 485m.
In 2025, changes of the share in the total amount of deposits, influenced by a combination of initial levels of the total amount of deposits and relative changes, were most pronounced in the upper part of the distribution, with a reduction in the share of the classes with the highest amounts of deposits at the expense of the classes with slightly lower amounts of deposits. Thus, the share of classes from the seventh to ninth decile class, i.e. citizens with individual deposit amounts between EUR 2.7 and 27.7 thousand, increased from 24.8% to 25.7%, up by 0.9 p.p., while the share in total deposits of citizens with deposits of less than EUR 2.6 thousand (up to sixth decile) remained largely unchanged (an increase by 0.09 p.p.). The decrease in the share of the upper decile class of distribution with citizens holding deposits of more than EUR 27.7 thousand, was 0.95 p.p.; of this number, the share of the 90th to 95th percentile class increased by 0.16 p.p., the share of the 95th to 99th percentile dropped by 0.45 p.p., while the share of the upper 1% declined from 28.6% to 27.9%, down by 0.66 p.p. (Table 2 and Figure 2).
Table 1 Distribution of citizens’ funds as at 31 December 2025
Notes: The data in the table refer to sole proprietors and natural persons. Also, the data only include deposits of residents for which there is information about their personal identification number (OIB). Overview of the distribution of funds as at 31 December 2024
Source: CNB.
Table 2 Comparison of the distribution of citizens’ funds at the end of December 2023, 2024 and 2025
Notes: The data in the table refer to deposits of sole proprietors and natural persons. Also, the data only include deposits of residents for which there is information about their personal identification number (OIB).
Source: CNB.
Table 3 Decomposition of the change in the number of depositors between 2024 and 2025
Notes: The data in the table refer to deposits of sole proprietors and natural persons. Also, the data only include deposits of residents for which there is information about their personal identification number (OIB).
Source: CNB.
Figure 1 Comparison of the distribution of citizens’ funds at the end of 2023, 2024 and 2025
Source: CNB.
Figure 2 Nominal change and change of the share in distribution of citizens’ funds between December 2024 and December 2025 by selected distribution classes
Source: CNB.
- Due to a technical error in data acceptance, the original processing for 2025 did not include funds in approximately 137 thousand transaction, savings and time accounts (out of a total of 6.37 million accounts), totalling around EUR 2bn, which belonged to sole proprietors. Thus, data on household deposits were subsequently resubmitted by credit institutions and included in the updated indicators. As the above-mentioned group per individual deposit amounts belongs on average to the upper decile distribution classes, the omission had a disproportionate impact on the indicators in the upper part of the distribution. After incorporating the updated data, the total amount of deposits rose from EUR 38.77bn to EUR 40.75bn at the end of 2025, the annual growth rate of the amount of deposits was revised from 1.7% to 6.9%, and the number of citizens with a positive balance increased by 42 thousand (initially 29 thousand) from the previous year. The most substantial revisions were carried out in the highest decile class, in which the nominal increase in funds was revised from EUR 113m to EUR 1.53bn, and in the upper percentile, in which the amount of deposits increased by 4.4% (formerly a decrease by 2.6%). While the revision affected the level of the indicators in the upper part of the distribution, the overall evaluation of the trends in the original disclosure remains unchanged: the inequality in the distribution of deposits continued to decrease, the largest increase in the share in total deposits was seen in the 80th to 90th percentile class (initially by 0.55 p.p., after revision by 0.45), and the share of the highest decile class in total deposits continued to decline (initially by 0.92 p.p., after revision by 0.95 p.p.).
- The decile class represents one tenth of depositors ordered by the amount of deposits, so that the first decile class includes one tenth of depositors with the lowest amounts of deposits, while the tenth decile class includes one tenth of depositors with the highest amounts of deposits.