Canadian teenagers appear to be more financially literate than most people their age in other rich countries, but more than one out of eight still fails to meet what the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development considers a baseline level of proficiency in the topic.
Every three years, the think-tank of wealthy nations conducts a survey of youngsters aged 15 to gauge them on — among other things — what they know about money.
The term "financial literacy" describes everything from understanding how pay stubs and taxes work, to more complicated concepts such as comparing relative prices of items, and the impact of interest rates on debt and investments.
The Program for International Student Assessment or PISA, tested more than 13,000 Canadian teens from seven provinces, and the results reveal some eye-opening conclusions about how ready the Canadian teenagers polled are to handle money.
On average across the 15 countries who participated, 22% scored below what OECD considers to be a minimum threshold of financial knowledge. That means almost a quarter of teenagers in the OECD nations that participated can "at best" understand the relation between their spending habits and achieving more affluent lives.
The countries that submitted the financial literacy portion of the survey were: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, U.S., Brazil, Lithania, Peru, Russia and China.
Canada fared better than the OECD average, with just 13 per cent or more than one in eight failing the OECD's minimum level of financial proficiency.
The report grades participants on a number of factors and gives them an overall score. Overall, Canadian 15-year-olds achieved a mean score of 533 in financial literacy, which is well above the OECD average of 489.
