What percentage of America is financially illiterate?
Self-rated demographic differences in financial literacy are bore out by the share answering questions across financial concepts correctly. Just under two-thirds of Americans (64%) are financial literate, while over one in three (36%) are not.
According to the US National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA), Gen Z has the lowest level of financial literacy, with only 28% of questions being answered correctly on average.
U.S. adults have big gaps in their financial knowledge
For instance, adults correctly answered, on average, 50% of the 28 basic money questions in the 2022 TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance index, the sixth annual barometer of financial literacy.
According to a survey by the Standard & Poor's Ratings Services Global Survey, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden rank the highest on the list of the most financially literate countries.
Financial Illiteracy Cost Americans $1,506 in 2023. Lacking financial literacy and not knowing how to manage one's personal finances carried a high cost in 2023. The NFEC conducted a survey asking American adults to estimate how much money they had lost during the year due to lack of financial knowledge.
Boomers—born between 1946 and 1964—are currently the wealthiest generation on the planet.
People aged 40-49 hold the highest amount of debt with $4.21 trillion in total. By 2030, Millennials (born between 1981 to 1996) are expected to have the most total debt at an average of $228,891 per person.
According to recent CivicScience data, 1-in-10 U.S. adults say they are 'not at all financially literate,' while the majority claim they are 'somewhat financially literate.
1. California
California's 23.1% of adults lacking basic prose literacy skills make California have the lowest literacy rate of 76.9%.
New Mexico has the lowest literacy rate in the US, with a rate of 70.9%. California has the second lowest literacy rate, at 71.6%, while both Texas and Mississippi have literacy rates of 71.8%, making them the third and fourth states with the lowest literacy rates in the US.
Are rich people more financially literate?
Rich adults have better financial skills than the poor (Figure 7). Of adults living in the richest 60 percent of households in the major emerging economies, 31 percent are financially literate, against 23 percent of adults who live in the poorest 40 percent of households.
The Rich Understand Basic Financial Literacy
A major reason that separates the poor vs rich is a basic understanding of financial literacy.
- Luxembourg - 100% Literacy Rate.
- Andorra - 100% Literacy Rate.
- Greenland - 100% Literacy Rate.
- Liechtenstein - 100% Literacy Rate.
- Uzbekistan - 100% Literacy Rate.
- Latvia - 99.89% Literacy Rate.
- Estonia - 99.82% Literacy Rate.
- Lithuania - 99.82% Literacy Rate.
Nearly one in three (30 percent) people in 2023 had some emergency savings, but not enough to cover three months of expenses. This is up from 27 percent of people in 2022. Nearly one in four (22 percent) U.S. adults said they have no emergency savings.
About 29% of respondents have between $501 and $5,000 in their savings accounts, while the remaining 21% of Americans have $5,001 or more.
According to data from the Federal Reserve's 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances, the average American family has $62,410 in savings, across savings accounts, checking accounts, money market accounts, call deposit accounts, and prepaid cards.
Millennials are the smartest, richest, and potentially longest living generation of all time. It's no secret they have it made, right? A special report by The Economist editor Robert Guest published this week suggests young people between the ages of 15 and 30 may lead tougher lives than we think.
Collectively, baby boomers benefited a great deal from America's economic growth over the second half of the 20th century. The economy boomed in their childhoods as the U.S. became a superpower, and as adults, they had an easier time buying low-cost housing than their children or grandchildren would.
Mark Zuckerberg is the only millennial billionaire among the top 10 richest globally. Brian Chesky (co-founder of Airbnb), Bobby Murphy and Evan Spiegel (co-founders of Snapchat), and Swiss billionaire Guillaume Pousaz are all part of this billionaire cohort.
Credit card debt in America by the numbers
In short, that amounts to an average balance of $5,733 per cardholder. Eye-watering, to say the least–and the fact that many of us carry no balances makes this statistical average even more alarming.
Which generation has the most credit cards?
Americans who have reached middle age or older—Gen X and baby boomers—hold the most credit cards, with an average of more than four per person. Members of Gen Z held just half that—among those old enough to have credit cards, that is.
The average debt an American owes is $103,358 across mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit, auto loans, credit card debt, student loan debt, and other debts like personal loans.
How Many Americans Are Living Paycheck to Paycheck? A 2023 survey conducted by Payroll.org highlighted that 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, a 6% increase from the previous year. In other words, more than three-quarters of Americans struggle to save or invest after paying for their monthly expenses.
21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2022. 54% of adults have a literacy below sixth-grade level. 21% of Americans 18 and older are illiterate in 2022.
In fact, 88% of all Americans said high school did not leave them “fully prepared” for handling money in the real world. This lack of personal finance education in high school has understandably lead to stress over managing finances for all Americans.
