ING Investment Management; 14% Europe has good financial literacy

ING Investment Management has published new research with 5,500 people across 11 European countries looking at people’s financial literacy. The findings reveal that only 14% of Europeans have ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ financial literacy, with 20% having poor skills here. Some 66% have ‘basic’ skills. The UK had the second best score in the ‘league table’ but, despite this, only 22% of the adult population has ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ financial literacy skills. Interestingly, Greece came top. Other key findings include: Only 7% of people in Turkey had good or excellent financial literacy scores – the lowest of the 11 countries surveyed They study was based on 13 questions on personal finance issues. On average Europeans answered 6.2 of the 13 questions correctly compared to 6.8 in 2010 so financial literacy is getting worse Questions were based on four areas: Financial future (related to saving for your future) In and around the house ( related to mortgage payments, credit cards and savings) Savings (questions related to savings accounts) Investments (questions related to stocks and shares) The percentage of Europeans who answered the questions correctly in each section was as follows: Financial future: 52% In and around the house: 45% Savings: 41% Investments: 50% The scores for the UK part of the survey were as follows: Financial future: 51% In and around the house: 52% Savings: 40% Investments:57%