How do average effective tax rates for high earners compare across Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland in 2024?
This fact-check may be outdated. Consider refreshing it to get the most current information.
Executive summary
Available reporting and datasets indicate Nordic countries levy high statutory top rates and high marginal rates for affluent earners in 2024, with examples such as Denmark’s top statutory rate around 55.9% (and projected combined marginal exposures above 60% in some analyses) and Finland’s top personal rate reported near 55% [1] [2] [3]. Broad OECD-style measures of average effective tax rates on labour show Nordic systems are highly progressive and extract a larger share of labour income for high earners than many other advanced economies, but precise “average effective tax rates for high earners in 2024” differ by definition and are not consistently tabulated in the provided sources [4] [5].
1. Why comparisons of “average effective” rates are tricky
Researchers and statisticians distinguish statutory top rates, marginal rates, and average effective tax rates (which include payroll taxes, social contributions and benefits); the OECD’s Taxing Wages work measures average and marginal effective tax rates for specific household types rather than a single “high earner” number, so cross-country comparisons depend on which household type, whether employer payroll contributions or cash transfers are included, and the income threshold used for “high earner” [4] [5].
2. What the headlines and mappings report for statutory and top marginal rates
Multiple summaries and visualizations place Denmark, Finland and Sweden among Europe’s highest top statutory personal rates in 2024: Statista/TAX Foundation lists Denmark’s top statutory band at about 55.9% for 2024, VisualCapitalist and other compilations show combined top marginal exposures in Denmark approaching or exceeding 60% when surtaxes and local levies are counted [1] [3]. PwC-cited summaries reported Finland ~55% and Denmark ~52.07 or similar depending on source vintage; Norway’s headline top statutory rates are commonly cited lower (around the high 40s) in some datasets [2] [1].
3. Average effective tax burdens on labour: Nordic pattern vs. peers
Analysts emphasise that Nordic countries tend to tax labour income more progressively and take a larger slice of gross wages through the combination of income taxes and social contributions; OECD “Taxing Wages” measures are designed to produce average effective tax rates across household types, showing the Nordics’ higher labour-income tax burdens compared with many other countries [4] [5]. Summaries note marginal rates for affluent earners in the Nordics “approach 60%” in practice, and average effective rates for middle-to-upper incomes are often tens of percentage points higher than in lower-tax European states [6] [5].
4. Country-by-country signals from the available sources
- Denmark: Top statutory personal rate cited ~55.9% in 2024; combined marginal exposures above 60% are reported in visual summaries, and Denmark’s top brackets often apply to incomes at relatively modest multiples of the average, meaning higher burdens fall on upper-middle earners as well as the richest [1] [3] [7].
- Finland: PwC-derived figures show Finland’s top personal rate in 2024 near 55%—a high headline rate comparable with Denmark and Sweden in some series [2] [1].
- Sweden: Some reporting highlights Sweden’s statutory or average rates as somewhat lower in specific metrics (an example headline cited Sweden at 16.1% in a particular household scenario), but other sources emphasise top marginal rates exceeding 50% for high incomes and marginal rates close to 60% when social charges are included [8] [6]. Available sources do not give a single, consistent “average effective tax rate for high earners in Sweden in 2024” [8] [6].
- Norway: Norway’s top statutory personal tax rate is commonly reported lower than Denmark/Finland—figures around the high 40s (for example ~47.4% cited in some datasets)—but the OECD average/ marginal frameworks again change the picture when employer/employee contributions and benefits are counted [2] [9] [4].
- Iceland: The provided search results discuss Nordic taxation generally but do not include a clear, single 2024 headline for Iceland’s average effective tax rate for high earners; available sources do not mention a precise Iceland 2024 “average effective” number in the material supplied [5] [6].
5. What the variation means in practice for “high earners”
Beyond headline top rates, the effective burden on a high earner depends on tax base (which incomes are taxed as labour vs capital), thresholds where top bands kick in (several sources note Nordic top brackets often apply to incomes near or only modestly above national averages), payroll taxes, and cash transfers that reduce net burdens in average-tax calculations—the OECD methodology captures these complexities and is the right tool for apples-to-apples “average effective” comparisons [4] [7] [5].
6. Bottom line and what you would need for a precise ranking
Current sources consistently show the Nordics impose among Europe’s highest labour-income tax burdens and quote Denmark and Finland as having the highest statutory top rates in 2024, with Denmark often cited near 55.9% and combined marginal exposures above 60% in some presentations [1] [3]. However, a precise cross-country ranking of “average effective tax rates for high earners in 2024” requires a specific definition of “high earner,” inclusion/exclusion of payroll taxes and benefits, and use of OECD- or country-level micro-simulations [4] [5]. Available sources do not provide a single, consistent table that gives average effective tax rates for high earners in all five countries for 2024; to produce that ranking you should consult the OECD Taxing Wages 2024 tables or country-specific microsimulation outputs cited above [4].