New Ipsos survey for the Financial Times reveals disparities within English society when it comes to financial understanding

The survey of 3,194 respondents aged 16+ across England showed differences in financial knowledge between various groups within English society. For example, 69% of those within the most deprived areas of England (measured by depravation quintile) were considered to be finically literate. This compares with 90% in the least deprived areas.

There were also differences by gender (86% of males were considered to be financially literate compared with 78% of females) as well as ethnicity (65% of ethnic minorities were considered to be financially illiterate compared with 84% of those with a non-ethnic minority background).

The new survey also revealed:

• More than half (55%) of the English public say they have no debt other than a mortgage. Older people are more likely to have no debt with 69% of those aged 55+ saying this compared with 39% of 35-54-year olds and 53% of 16-34-year olds.  
• Eighty-seven percent agree that it is important to save for retirement. This figure rises to 93% amongst those aged 55+ compared to 89% of those aged 35-54 and 77% of those aged 16-34. Those from a non-ethnic minority background are more likely to agree that it is important to save for retirement compared with those from an ethnic minority background (89% vs. 79%).
• Over nine in ten (92%) agree that it is important to save for a financial emergency. Those aged 55+ are more likely to agree to this than those aged 16-34 (95% vs. 87%) as are those from a non-ethnic minority background compared to those from an ethnic minority background (93% vs. 87%)
• Nine in ten (90%) say that they learned either not very much or nothing at all about managing money and personal finances when they were at school (8% say they learned either a great deal or fair amount). Those from ethnic minority backgrounds however were more likely to say they had learned about personal finances when compared to those from a non-ethnic minority background (18% vs. 7%).  

The Financial Times is available at the following link: https://www.ft.com/content/80480742-9853-4144-9c91-238021414bc8

Technical note:

Ipsos interviewed online a representative sample of 3,194 adults aged 16+ across England between 12 and 18 August 2021.

Survey data has been collected by Ipsos’s UK KnowledgePanel, an online random probability panel which provides gold standard insights into the UK population, by providing bigger sample sizes via the most rigorous research methods. Data are weighted by age, gender, region, Index of Multiple Deprivation quintile, education, ethnicity and number of adults in the household in order to reflect the profile of the population of England. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.