In a 2011 Vanity Fair article, Nobel-Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote:
America has long prided itself on being a fair society, where everyone has an equal chance of getting ahead, but the statistics suggest otherwise: the chances of a poor citizen, or even a middle-class citizen, making it to the top in America are smaller than in many countries of Europe.
These terms aren't well defined, but we can make some assumptions about what he means. A household in the bottom income quintile makes at most about $20k, and on average $11k, which is below the poverty guideline for a family of four. This seems to be a reasonable division for a poor individual. A middle-class household in the middle income quintile makes between $38k-$62k, and about $50k on average, so that should suffice. The trickiest part of the statement is what is meant by the "top". The article goes to great lengths talking about the Top 1%, so I assume that is what he is referring to by top. In 2009, the bottom cut-off for the Top 1% Adjusted Gross Income was $343,927. Another possible point of contention is the differences between wealth and income. The article uses both terms, but appears to mostly be concerned with income inequality, so for the purposes of this question I am concerned with income.
From previous studies, we know what the chances are for someone from the bottom/middle income quintile to make it into the Top 1%. It is about 0.2%/0.3% from 1996-2005 in the USA.
Are their any nations in Europe whose citizens have a greater than 0.2%/0.3% chance of going from a bottom/middle income quintile for their country to the top 1% for their country?