The Little Data Book on Financial Inclusion 2018, a World Bank report
Nov 10, 2018
The pocket book presents some key findings from the third round of data collected for the Global Findex Database. Indicators of 144 economies are organized by country, region and income group, and delve into the use of formal and informal financial services. The report is produced by the World Bank with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and in collaboration with Gallup, Inc.
Key findings from Global Findex Database 2017 and "The Little Data Book on Financial Inclusion 2018"
- Globally, 68.5% out of 5,502,400,000 people over the age of 15 – 3.8 billion people – had bank accounts in 2017;
- Globally, 31.5% out of 5,502,400,000 people over the age of 15 - 1.7 billion people – were unbanked in 2017;
- Globally, about 230 million unbanked adults work in the private sector and get paid in cash only;
- Of lower income economies, 34.9 million out of 378.0 million people over the age of 15 did not have bank accounts in 2017;
- In Europe and Central Asia, 35% of people are unbanked;
- In Latin America and the Caribbean, 44.6% of people are unbanked; and
- In the Middle East and North Africa, 66.5% of people are unbanked.
'The database provides nationally representative, demand-side data on access to and use of accounts, credit, payments, and savings by adults age 15 and above in 144 economies. In addition, new indicators measure how people make or receive digital payments.'
According to the report, a substantial 31.5% of the people over age 15 live without bank accounts globally, that's over 1.7 billion people relying entirely on cash to get by.
Other findings
Excerpt from report introduction
The Global Findex database is housed in the World Bank’s Development Research Group and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is the first public global database of demand-side indicators to track the financial lives of individuals over time. Covering a range of topics, the data can be used to create a more complete picture of how people save, borrow, manage risk, and send and receive money (p. 20)...
"The Global Findex database shows that 515 million adults worldwide opened an account at a financial institution or through a mobile money provider between 2014 and 2017. This means that 69 percent of adults now have an account, up from 62 percent in 2014 and 51 percent in 2011. In high-income economies 94 percent of adults have an account; in developing economies 63 percent do. There is also wide variation in account ownership among individual economies." (p. 2)
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