South Koreans’ overall financial skills ranked higher than the average of 30 surveyed countries and economies, data showed Wednesday.

The country ranked No. 7 in rankings on financial knowledge, attitudes and behavior, the global study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released in Paris showed.


The survey questioned 52,000 people aged 18 to 79. To gauge financial knowledge, it asked seven questions, such as on the financial concept of diversification and how purchasing power of money changes over time as a result of inflation. For assessment of financial behavior, questions included if the respondents have a household budget, plan ahead, choose products and use independent advice. To gauge financial attitudes, the survey asked if the respondents have a tendency to favor the long term.

South Korea’s score stood at 14.4, while France topped the list with 14.9. The average score, 13.2 of a possible 21, was relatively low, leaving much room for improvement, the OECD said.

Affluent countries such as Finland, Norway and Canada ranked second, third and the fourth, respectively. The UK scored 13.1, below the average, and Poland ranked last with 11.6.

By category, Korean scored relatively high at 5.4 out of 7 in financial knowledge, 5.9 out of 9 in financial behavior and relatively low at 3.2 out of 5 in financial attitudes.

Korea’s proportion of getting all the seven questions correct in financial knowledge was relatively large at 32 percent, while only two other economies -- Hong Kong and Norway -- exceeded 30 percent.

In the survey, the OECD cited Korea as a country of “active financial consumers,” along with Russia and Malaysia.

The OECD also noted gender differences in financial knowledge. On average, 61 percent of men achieved the minimum target score while only 51 percent of women did so across the 30 participating countries. This compares with 69 percent of men versus 56 percent of women in OECD countries, the report said. In Korea, 81 percent of men reached the minimum target score compared to 72 percent of women.

The OECD survey for Korea was commissioned to the Financial Supervisory Service and was carried out between November and December of 2014 with a translated questionnaire in Korean.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)