🌐 OECD·Net household saving rate·SNA 2008 · 2024
Am I saving enough?
Enter your personal saving rate. We'll show you where it ranks against 29 OECD economies — and what your next 1% could compound to.
I'm saving roughly % OF INCOME of my take-home pay.
Your rank · among 29 OECD economies
#15 / 29
Below averageSpending most of what arrives
That's −0.9pp below the OECD average of 5.9%.
Twenty-nine economies, one column
Where you sit in the OECD.
Each row is a country's net household saving rate — what's left after final consumption, including pension entitlements, divided by disposable income. Sweden saves the most; the lowest savers are net-dissaving. Most rich economies cluster between 3% and 10%. Your row is dropped in at its rank.
#
Country
Rate
- 1Sweden16.0%
- 2Hungary14.3%
- 3Czechia13.7%
- 4France12.8%
- 5Austria11.7%
- 6Germany11.2%
- 7Netherlands9.5%
- 8Spain9.2%
- 9Ireland9.0%
- 10Denmark8.5%
- 11Mexico8.1%
- 12Belgium6.6%
- 13Poland6.1%
- 14Australia6.1%
- 15Luxembourg5.0%
- 16Canada5.0%
- 17You5.0%
- 18United States4.9%
- 19South Korea4.8%
- 20United Kingdom4.7%
- 21Portugal4.5%
- 22Finland4.3%
- 23Italy4.2%
- 24Norway4.2%
- 25Lithuania3.8%
- 26Estonia3.0%
- 27Japan0.9%
- 28Latvia0.0%
- 29South Africa−1.0%
- 30New Zealand−1.3%
Net household savings, % of disposable income · SNA 2008 basis · 2024 or latest available. Switzerland is not in this series.
Where the middle is
The OECD's truer middle.
The median saver in the OECD keeps 5.0% of their take-home pay. The population-weighted average is 5.9%. The gap between them is small — meaning the rich-world distribution is unusually symmetric for an economic statistic, with no runaway tail.
OECD median
5.0%
Half of OECD economies save more than this; half save less. The truer middle of the rich world.
You
5.0%
−0.9pp vs. OECD average. Tier: Below average.
OECD average
5.9%
Pulled up by the strongest savers. The US and UK sit just below it.
The lever you can pull
What the next 1% compounds to.
Saving rate is the only big retirement number you fully control. Most households underestimate the second-order effect of one extra percentage point. Type in your income; we run the math at the return you pick.
Your next 1pp$600 / year5.0% → 6.0%
In 10 years
$8k
$600/yr · compounded at 7%
In 20 years
$25k
$600/yr · compounded at 7%
In 30 years
$57k
$600/yr · compounded at 7%
Future value of an ordinary annuity, end-of-year contributions, constant real return. Not adjusted for inflation or tax — both meaningful over 30 years.
Three numbers worth the asterisk
What the league table actually hides.
The leader
Sweden has grown its saving rate eightfold since 2004.
From roughly 2.3% to the top of the OECD. Behaviour was reshaped by policy — pension reform, automatic enrolment, and a wave of low-fee index funds. Saving is downstream of plumbing.
The Anglo gap
The US, UK, Australia and New Zealand all save below the OECD average.
The Anglo economies cluster well below the continental European savers. The cultural gap is real, even after adjusting for pension accounting.
Dissaving
Some OECD households are drawing down, not saving.
A negative net rate means households spend slightly more than they earn — financing the gap with credit or asset sales. A handful of OECD members briefly turn negative each cycle.
Compare on wealth instead?
Saving rate is what you keep each month; wealth is what's stacked up by now. Two very different questions — same person.
→
Next steps
Four calculators sized to the same question.
Compound a one-time bonus
Drop in a windfall; see what it becomes at 5%, 7%, 10% across 10/20/30 years.
Run it→
When can you stop working?
Saving rate is the dial that sets your FI date. Find the year your portfolio outearns your salary.
Find FI→
Set a savings goal
Set a target and a timeline; see the monthly contribution that gets you there.
Plan it→
Where do you sit globally?
Saving rate compares you to your country; the wealth pyramid compares you to humanity.
Compare→
Frequently asked
Sweden leads the OECD with a net household savings rate of 16.0% of disposable income. Remarkably, that rate has grown nearly 8-fold since 2004 (from ~2.3%) — a reminder that saving behaviour is shaped by institutions and incentives, not just culture.
U.S. households save 4.9%, roughly one-third of what Swedish or Czech households save. Contributing factors: defined-contribution pensions (401(k)) are voluntary rather than auto-enrolled as elsewhere, higher debt service on mortgages and student loans, and a consumption-driven economic model. Mexico (8.1%) saves almost twice as much as its northern neighbour.
It means the country as a whole is consuming more than it earns on a net-disposable-income basis — households are drawing down past savings or taking on new debt to cover current spending. In 2024 New Zealand (-1.3%) and South Africa (-1.0%) both show small negative rates, signalling broad financial strain rather than an individual choice.
Roughly yes, but not exactly. OECD national savings rates use net disposable income (after tax, after social contributions, adjusted for pension entitlements) as the denominator. If you compute your personal saving rate as (income saved) ÷ (take-home pay after tax), you're using a reasonably close denominator — so comparing yourself to the country figures is meaningful even if not a perfect apples-to-apples match.
The source is the OECD's Household Savings indicator, using the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA 2008). All OECD members compile on this basis, which is why the cross-country comparison is methodologically sound. The rates shown are 2024 figures or the latest available in each OECD country's release.
Yes. The OECD net saving rate includes the adjustment for change in pension entitlements — so mandatory pension contributions, employer pension matches, and similar retirement-system flows are counted as household saving. This is why countries with strong workplace pension systems (Netherlands, Denmark, UK) show higher rates than you might expect from consumer behaviour alone.