While the sentiment that Germany isn't the wealthiest country is debatable - but i'm not here to argue against it - your reasoning isn't really the best i think. What are we looking at: Is someone from luxembourg wealthy in Germany? Yes, because the overall standard of living is relatively low compared to luxembourg, denmark, switzerland, ireland. Is a german considered wealthy in Luxembourg? No, because he earns less and can't afford the high cost of living. However respective to their own markets, they're probably very similiar. You need to compare those two metrics to the CPI of each country to get a better picture. (Unless we're talking strictly comparison wise across europe, which isn't fair because most people don't live in a live and work in seperate countries)