Only 16.7% of Indian Teenagers are financially literate: Streak Survey

By Leandra Monteiro

The Financial Literacy Championship, an online financial quiz for school students was conducted by Streak, a teenage-focussed, Neobank. A global survey shows that the financial literacy rate of adults in India is ~27%, which is lower when compared to countries like the United Kingdom (67%), Singapore (59%), or the USA (57%).

In the quiz conducted by Streak, a teenage-focused neobank, only an astonishing 16.7% of Indian children had an average passing score in the quiz. The results show that respondents from South India performed the best with an average score of 47.86% and East India underperformed with an average score of only 39.41%. City wise performance shows that teens from Gurgaon had the highest average score of 52.3% and Jaipur has the lowest average score of 38.41%.

The quiz garnered more than 3000 signups from 100+ schools across the country between the age group of 11-17 years. The quiz tested the school students on topics like banking products, currency, personal finance, payment systems, credit & loans, and investment.

One of the most under-tapped markets in the Indian banking industry is that of young adults or teenagers. 45% of the students do not know how to create a budget, and approximately 60% of the students do not understand investments, the concept of risk to reward, or the time value of money. More than 50% of the students scored below-average on topics like budgeting, investments, diversification, the risk to return of investments. On the flip side, students had a marginally better understanding of topics like interest calculation, banking products, and basics of inflation.

“The quiz was an eye-opening event for everyone working at Streak. It strengthened our belief in our goal and vision as a company – to build a solution that will enable the next generation to get smart with money and make prudent and educated financial decisions in the future. Personal finance is a soft skill and we are here to let teens experience the learning process that is different from how they learn math or physics,” said Mitul Mehta, Co-founder, Streak.