Abstract

The paper analyses the results of the Survey on the Financial Literacy of Italian Adults, conducted by the Bank of Italy in early 2020. In line with the OECD’s methodology, the financial literacy indicator is the sum of the scores calculated for three factors: knowledge, behaviour and attitudes. The survey confirms that Italy lags behind by international standards, as already noted in the 2017 survey. Compared with 2017, the new survey shows that Italian people’s financial knowledge has improved, while their behaviour and attitudes have essentially remained stable. Financial literacy varies among the population according to the education levels – the most significant variable – gender, age and geographical location of those interviewed. An econometric analysis focused on knowledge – the most reliable component – shows that Italians can be divided into four groups, characterized by increasingly high levels of financial knowledge: excluded, incompetent, competent and expert. Between 2017 and 2020, the number of excluded and incompetent individuals in the population has decreased, whereas that of competent, and to a lesser extent, of expert individuals has increased