Indians ranked low on financially literacy survey

June 16, 2012

As per the Visa’s 2012 Global Financial Literacy Barometer survey conducted among over 25,000 people in 28 countries Indians are among the least financially literate people in the world with youth and women struggling most with their finance literacy due to lack of discussions within the families on money management issues.

As per the survey:

India stood at 23^rd position among the 28 countries surveyed, with only 35% of its Population Financially Literate (PFL)
Brazil topped the chart with 50.4% PFL
Mexico: 2^nd position with (47.8%) PFL
Australia: 3^rd (46.3%) PFL
US: 4^th (44.6%) PFL
Canada: 5^th (43.8%) PFL
Indian families devote only 10 days a year to discuss money management issues with their children compared with the global average of 19 days a year
41% younger respondents aged b/w 18-24 were more likely to have no emergency savings at all compared to the older respondents
Average savings kept by Indians for an emergency is 1.9 months which is close to the survey average of 2 months
China led in this section with 3.9 months of savings for an emergency, followed by Taiwan with 3.7 months, Hong Kong with 3.5 months and Japan with 3.3 months
34% Indian women respondents have no savings at all, in comparison to 29% of the male respondents
As per the survey 43% women and 20% men agreed that they did not comprehend personal finances