The richest 1% of the Dutch population owned almost 23.4% of the country’s assets at the end of 2012 – up from 21.5% before the start of the economic crisis – the Volkskrant reported at the weekend.

The figures come from the national statistics office CBS and show that the country’s richest people have increased their share of the nation’s wealth, despite falling house prices and stock markets.

In 2012, the richest 74,000 households in the Netherlands owned assets of €273bn – or €3.7m per household. The total asset value of the Dutch was then €1,166bn.

But in 2008, the richest 1% owned 21.5% of the country’s total assets of €1,300bn, the Volkskrant said.

The CBS figures also show the richest 0.1% of the population owned 8.7% of the national assets in 2012.