2023-08-29 13:44:32
The French, among the least well educated in finance? This is the observation made by the insurer Allianz who was interested, in a study published on Monday July 27, to the financial culture of seven Western countries: France, therefore, but also Australia, Germany, Spain, the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Thus, according to the German insurance group, more than one in four French people (26%) have low financial education. A proportion equivalent to that of the United Kingdom and Germany, and which remains in the average of the countries questioned. The United States is at the very bottom of the ranking, with nearly 32% of Americans having a low financial culture.
On the other side of the spectrum, only one French person out of ten would have a high financial culture, ie the worst total of the countries questioned, tied with… the United States. In general, only Americans have a worse record than France in terms of financial literacy, according to Allianz. On the contrary, Italy and Spain seem to be the best performers, according to the study.
The differences between Western countries nevertheless remain quite marginal, and reveal a certain global trend towards financial ignorance. For this survey, the insurer Allianz asked nine questions to 1,000 participants per country, relating to interest rate calculations, the impact of inflation or even investment returns. With results that therefore remain quite low, all countries combined: on average, only 15% of participants have high financial knowledge.
The insurer was also interested in the differences in financial education according to gender, with significant results. Thus, in France, only 6% of women have a high financial culture, against 14% for men. On the contrary, they are overrepresented (29%) among people with low financial knowledge, compared to men (22%). A trend that is found among all developed countries, except one: Germany. Across the Rhine, 22% of women have a high financial education, against only 10% of men. A cultural explanation, according to Allianz, while in Germany we find “a larger proportion of women declared as the only financial decision-makers in their homes”.
Up to 2,730 euros in lost earnings per year in France
However, you don’t need to be an expert to start making profits. The Allianz study assures us: “the difference in performance between an average and high financial culture is small. […] On the other hand, the difference in annual return between a low financial culture and an average financial culture is considerably higher.” Thus, according to the insurer, a Frenchman with little financial education will earn 2,390 euros less per year than someone with average knowledge. A loss of earnings which amounts to 2,730 euros compared to someone who is very educated, a difference of only 340 euros. What makes Allianz say that it is “not necessary to become an expert in finance to achieve good financial results: average knowledge is sufficient”.
While the income gap according to financial education is considerable in France, it is still much lower than in some other developed countries. Thus, in the United States, the difference between someone with a low financial culture and a high financial culture climbs to 4,870 euros per year. In the United Kingdom, it is 3,690 euros, while in Australia, it even peaks at 5,000 euros. A difference between the Anglo-Saxon countries and France which would be due in particular “to the generalized use of the funded pension scheme”, leading for many investors to have “a high proportion of shares and other assets high efficiency,” according to Allianz.
To remedy its shortcomings, France has had since 2016 a “national strategy for economic, budgetary and financial education“, based on “the high-level principles developed by the OECD and adopted by the G20”. The Bank of France has in particular been designated by the public authorities as “national operator, responsible for implementing the strategy”.
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