The OECD International Comparison

Financial Education, an International Comparison by the OECD, 2018

PISA test findings from 2018 demonstrate that Italian students do not perform well on financial education tests.

For example, Italians rank last in terms of financial literacy after accounting for their reading literacy skills.

Table IV.1 Snapshot of performance in financial literacy

Mean score statistically significantly above the OECD average

Mean score not statistically significantly different from the OECD average

Mean score statistically significantly below the OECD average

1. Relative scores are the residuals obtained from a pooled linear regression, across all participating countries/economies, of performance in financial literacy over performance in mathematics and/or reading. They represent performance in the aspects of the financial literacy assessment that are specific to financial literacy, as opposed to being shared with mathematics and/or reading.

Note: Values that are statistically significant are marked in bold (see Annex 3).
Countries and economies rank in decreasing order of mean performance in the PISA 2018 financial literacy assessment.

Source: OECD PISA 2018 Database, Tables IV.B1.2.1. IV.B1.2.3 IV.B1.2.4 e IV.B1.2.8

Italians do not seem to enjoy talking about money. They are less independent in terms of spending autonomy and tend to turn to the Internet instead of teachers for economic and financial information.

Countries and economies rank in decreasing order of the percentage of students who agreed/strongly agreed that they enjoy talking about money matters.

Source: OECD, PISA 2018 Database, Tables IV.B1.4.1, IV.B1.4.11, IV.B1.7.17 e IV.B1.8.6.