As pointed out by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA), November is Financial Literacy Month across the country. Judging by the organization’s efforts, which for five years has set up a national financial literacy program, the subject is of the utmost importance. “Information is power,” the popular saying goes, and well-informed people are people who have better control over their finances.
We can wonder about the performance of Canadians in terms of their financial knowledge. This is something that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) measures regularly. The organization last year carried out a survey of 52,000 adults from thirty countries, including seventeen members of the OECD. The survey was designed to comparatively measure the performance of each country regarding the knowledge, behaviour and attitudes toward financial issues. As can be seen from the graph opposite, Canada performs very well.
The country ranks fourth in the sample considered, with a score of 14.6 out of 21.
In addition, the survey also showed that only 56% of adults surveyed achieved a pass mark (five correct answers) out of the seven questions related to financial literacy. The statistics are not much better in regard to questions relating to financial behaviour, since only one adult out of two (51%) achieved a pass mark set at six correct answers out of nine questions on this specific topic. As for questions on financial attitudes, half those interviewed demonstrated, by the content of their answers, a penchant for long-term vision, here again considered as a threshold of success by the OECD.
Good news, therefore, for Canadians, since good command of basic financial concepts contributes to the financial prosperity of every citizen, as well as for the community!