Financial Literacy Around the World

Financial literacy is a critical barrier to financial and economic participation. Because of a lack of knowledge about finance and financial products, many people – especially the poor and women – are not able to access banking and financial services, and are therefore kept out of financial markets.

McGraw Hill Financial worked with Gallup to create the S&P Ratings Services Global Financial Literacy Survey – one of the most extensive measurements of global financial literacy to date. The survey was based on interviews with more than 150,000 adults across 148 countries. Of the 148 countries targeted for data collection in 2014, 144 countries successfully collected data and met Gallup quality standards.

The document presents the survey findings and provides important data to regulators, sovereigns, NGOs and policymakers, to help them understand people’s current knowledge of basic financial concepts