Top Financial Income Earners Take 44% of Total Income
Sweep Up 14 Trillion Won Through Dividends
The top 2% of domestic financial income earners accounted for nearly half of the total financial income. Notably, these individuals earned significantly more from stock dividends than from deposit interest, indicating a shift in wealthy investors' patterns from 'interest-focused' to 'dividend-focused' investments.
On the 24th, when the KOSPI index hit an intraday all-time high, the status board in the dealing room of Hana Bank in Jung-gu, Seoul displayed the KOSPI,
According to data submitted by the National Tax Service to Assemblyman Park Sunghoon of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Strategy and Finance Committee, on October 26, 2025, the number of people who filed comprehensive financial income tax returns for 2023 was 336,246. This represents a sharp increase of 75.6% compared to the previous year (191,501).
The total financial income of these individuals amounted to 32.4929 trillion won, with an average of about 97 million won in financial income per person. Of this, interest income was 10.7537 trillion won, while dividend income was 21.7392 trillion won, meaning dividends were nearly twice the amount of interest.
There were 6,882 high-net-worth individuals with financial income exceeding 500 million won, accounting for about 2% of the total. The financial income reported by this group totaled 14.2436 trillion won, making up 43.8% of all financial income. The average financial income per person in this group was 2.07 billion won.
In particular, the higher the asset level, the greater the proportion of dividend income. For those with financial income over 500 million won, dividend income was 12.3327 trillion won, about 6.5 times higher than interest income (1.9108 trillion won). Dividends accounted for a remarkable 86.6% of their total financial income. Even in the 300 million to 500 million won range, dividend income was 2.8 times greater than interest income.
In contrast, for those with financial income below 80 million won, interest income exceeded dividend income. For example, the proportion of dividend income was 33.0% in the 20 million to 30 million won range, and 37.4% in the 30 million to 40 million won range.
Experts interpret the dividend-focused asset management of top financial income earners as a phenomenon linked to increased corporate investment. On the other hand, they note that ordinary investors still maintain a conservative, deposit-oriented approach to personal finance.
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