LWS Database

The Luxembourg Wealth Study Database (LWS) is the first cross-national wealth database in existence. Harmonized into a common framework (2019 Template User Guide), parallel to the one created for the LIS datasets, LWS datasets also contain household- and person-level data ( List of Variables, Printable version ) on assets and debt, market and government income, household characteristics, labour market outcomes and, in some datasets, expenditures and behavioural indicators.

For generic codebook of the LWS Database variables’ names, definitions, codes, comments, see here.

For extensive documentation on the LWS Database, enter METIS.

For users interested in knowing more about the changes between the previous and the 2019 Template:
– a detailed list of changes between the previous and the 2019 Template can be accessed here.
– the correspondence between old and new income and consumption LWS variables can be seen here.
– the correspondence between old and new wealth LWS variables can be seen here.
– the correspondence between old and new other LWS variables can be seen here.

For users interested in accessing the pre-revised datasets (following the previous Template):
– in order to access those pre-revised files, choose the project “LWSPRE” from LISSY.
Note: these datasets are no longer maintained and no new datasets are added.
– you can consult the old LWS variable list here.

List of LWS Datasets

Note: Year given is the wealth reference year, that is the year to which the wealth data pertain.

Newly added datasets (2024 Spring Data Splash) are listed in blue

* Forthcoming datasets are listed in red

Countries Wave IV Wave V Wave VI Wave VII Wave VIII Wave IX Wave X Wave XI Wave XII
Australia AU04 AU10 AU14 AU16 AU18 *AU20
Austria AT11 AT14 AT17 AT21
Canada CA99 CA05 CA12 CA16 CA19
Chile CL07 CL14 CL17 *CL21
Denmark DK15 DK16 DK17 DK18 DK19 DK20 DK21 DK22
Estonia EE13 EE17 *EE21
Finland FI09 FI13 FI16
Germany DE02 DE07 DE12 DE17
Greece GR09 GR14 GR18 *GR21
Italy IT95 IT98 IT00 IT02 IT04 IT06 IT08 IT10 IT12 IT14 IT16 IT20
Japan JP04 JP09 *JP10 JP11 *JP12 *JP13 JP14 *JP15 *JP16 *JP17 *JP18 *JP19 *JP20 *JP21
Luxembourg LU10 LU14 LU18 LU21
Mexico *MX19
Norway NO10 NO13 NO16 NO19 NO20 NO21
Slovakia SK10 SK14 SK17 SK21
Slovenia SI14 SI17
South Africa ZA15 ZA17
South Korea KR17 KR18 KR19 KR20 KR21 KR22
Spain ES02 ES05 ES08 ES11 ES14 ES17 ES21
Sweden *SE97 *SE98 *SE99 *SE00 *SE01 SE02 *SE03 *SE04 SE05 *SE06 *SE07
United Kingdom UK07 UK09 UK11 UK13 UK15 UK17 UK19
United States US95 US98 US01 US04 US07 US10 US13 US16 US19 US22
Uruguay *UY12 *UY13

For convenience, throughout our documentation, LIS uses short country/territory names – i.e., those that are commonly used in cross-national academia – in conjunction with standard two-letter ISO abbreviations. This convention does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of LIS concerning the legal status of any country or territory. LIS recognizes that several supranational organizations designate country/territory names which may differ from the ones that LIS uses. Examples include:

United Nations
World Bank
International Labour Organization
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development