Release of the 2015 National Financial Capability Study | July 12, 2016

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RELEASE

On July 12, 2016, GFLEC and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation co-hosted the release of the data from the 2015 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). The NFCS is an ongoing project by FINRA Foundation aimed at monitoring and better understanding financial capability in America. This triennial study was first fielded in 2009.

The release of the data took place at the George Washington University (GW) with remarks by the following speakers:

• • Rick Ketchum, Chairman and CEO of FINRA and Chairman of the FINRA Foundation
• • Sarah Bloom Raskin, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury
• • Mary Jo White, Chair, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• • Richard Cordray, Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
• • Jane Rooney, Financial Literacy Leader, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

The program also included a panel discussion with the following participants:

• • Moderator, Chris Bumcrot, Principal and Owner, ARC Research
• • Signe-Mary McKernan, Senior Fellow and Director, Opportunity and Ownership Initiative, Urban Institute
• • Sarah Dewees, Senior Director of Research, Policy, and Asset Building Programs, First Nations Development Institute
• • Michael Morris, Executive Director, National Disability Institute
• • Steve Trites, Manager of Research and Policy, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
• • Daniel Pollard, Senior Advisor, Enterprise Data, U.S. Department of Education Office of Federal Student Aid

Gerri Walsh, President of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, and Annamaria Lusardi, Academic Director of GFLEC, emceed the event. The program was followed by a one-hour reception.

Click here to view the full program. 

2015 DATA

The most recent wave of the National Financial Capability Study included new questions on topics such as student loans, medical debt, and financial planning.

To read the report on the 2015 data, click here.

Additionally, the survey’s full data set, methodology, and related questionnaire are available at USFinancialCapability.org.

Read Director Lusardi’s Wall Street Journal blog post about the data: “So Much Student Debt, So Much Ignorance.”

And she co-authored with Gerri Walsh, of FINRA Foundation, a Forbes blog post on the findings: “A Peek Into America’s Pocketbook Reveals Finances Are Improving Slowly, But Surely.”

KEY FINDINGS

Among the study’s most significant findings:

• • More than one in five Americans (21 percent) have unpaid medical debt, and women are more likely than men to put off medical services due to cost, such as seeing a doctor, buying needed prescriptions or undergoing a medical procedure;
• • Nearly half of respondents with a high school education or less could not come up with $2,000 in 30 days in the event of an emergency (45 percent) compared to only 18 percent for respondents with a college degree;
• • Twenty-nine percent of 18 to 34-year olds with a mortgage have been late with a mortgage payment, compared with 7 percent for the 55+ age group;
• • Hispanics and African-Americans are much more likely to use high-cost forms of borrowing like pawn shops and payday loans compared to whites—39 percent for African-Americans, 34 percent for Hispanics and 21 percent for whites; and
• • Only 37 percent of respondents are considered to have high financial literacy, meaning they could answer four or more questions on a five-question financial literacy quiz—down from 39 percent in 2012 and 42 percent in 2009.

ANALYZING THE NFCS DATA

GFLEC has been working on the NFCS data since the first wave was released in 2009. The data is uniquely useful because it is rich in information and has a large sample size. The data helps to shed light on many different aspects of Americans’ financial capability. Below you can find links to some of GFLEC’s work on the previous NFCS waves.

REPORTS

• • Americans’ Troubling Financial Capabilities: A Profile of Pre-Retirees | 2016
• • Hispanic Personal Finances: Financial Literacy and Decisionmaking Among College-Educated Hispanics | May 2015
• • Working Women’s Financial Capability: An Analysis across Family Status and Career Stages | May 2014
• • Gen Y Personal Finances: A Crisis of Confidence and Capability | May 2014
• • Financial Literacy Around the World (FLAT World) | May 2014

POLICY BRIEFS

• • The Financial Fragility of American Families | September 2013
• • Helping Gen Y Achieve Long-Term Financial Security | February 2014

TESTIMONY

• • Testimony before the Subcommittee on Children and Families of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pension | April 2013

WORKING PAPERS

• • Debt and Debt Management among Older Adults | September 2013
• • Financial Literacy and High-Cost Borrowing in the United States | January 2013

PUBLICATIONS

• • How Financially Literate are Women? An Overview and New Insights | February 2016
• • Optimal Financial Knowledge and Wealth Inequality | September 2015
• • Financial literacy: Do people know the ABCs of finance? | April 2015
• • Risk Literacy | March 2015
• • The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence | March 2014
• • The Geography of Financial Literacy | July 2013
• • Financial Literacy and Financial Behavior among Young Adults: Evidence and Implications | July 2013
• • Financial Literacy and Quantitative Reasoning in the High School and College Classroom | July 2013
• • Financial Literacy and Retirement Planning in the United States | October 2011