Personal Finance

Chart: Most Millennials Have Less Than $1,000 in Savings

Published

6 years ago

August 19, 2016

Jeff Desjardins

Chart: Most Millennials Have Less Than $1,000 in Savings

Four-digit bank account totals elude 52% of the 18-34 crowd

The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.

The majority of millennials are living paycheck to paycheck.

A recent survey of millennials by HowMuch.net found that 51.8% of those aged 18-34 have less than $1,000 held between bank accounts and cash savings.

This echoes previous data we’ve seen – not just on millennials, but Americans in general. For example, we know that 14% of Americans have “negative” wealth. We also know that 62% of Americans don’t have emergency savings that could cover a $1,000 hospital visit or a $500 car repair.

Taking that into consideration, let’s dive deeper into this more recent millennial data.

Younger vs. Older Millennials

The broad survey data can be further divided into “younger” and “older” millennial segments: those aged 18-24, vs. those between 25-34.

Based on the survey question, an intuitive expectation would be that younger millennials are much more likely to have less than $1,000 in savings. After all, many of the people in this group would still be in school, and many are struggling with student debt.

However, the difference is far less than one may expect. While it is true that 57.6% of the younger demographic has less than $1,000 in savings, the older group is not much better off with almost half (47.1%) of them being in the same boat. This shows that many millennials in their late 20s and early 30s are still not able to generate substantial savings.

Male vs. Female Millennials

There is also a significant divide between male and female millennials here, with 56.7% of females having less than $1,000 in savings. Compare this number to the male percentage of 46.5%, and it is clear there is a substantial divide between genders.

Lastly, males are also more likely to have a substantial amount stored away in their bank account. According to the survey, 21.5% of males have more than $20,000 of savings, while only 11.9% females can say the same.

Related Topics:money Millennials banks savings paycheck

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Personal Finance

Ranked: The Best Countries to Retire In

Which countries are the best equipped to support their aging population? This graphic show the best countries to retire in around the world.

Published

3 months ago

November 21, 2022

Raul Amoros

which countries are the best places to retire

Ranked: The Best Countries to Retire in Around the World

Our global population is getting older. By 2050, the OECD predicts that 30% of people worldwide will be aged 65 or over.

While some countries are relatively prepared to handle this increase in the elderly demographic, others are already feeling the squeeze and struggling with the challenges that come with a rapidly aging population.

Which countries are the best equipped to support their senior citizens? This graphic uses data from the 2022 Natixis Global Retirement Index to show the best countries to retire in around the world, based on several different factors that we’ll dig into below.

What Makes a Country Retirement-Friendly?

When people consider what makes a place an ideal retirement location, it’s natural to think about white sand beaches, hot climates, and endless sunny days. And, in truth, the right net worth opens up a world of opportunity of where to enjoy one’s golden years.

The Global Retirement Index (GRI) examines retirement from different, more quantitative perspective. The annual report looks at 44 different countries and ranks them based on their retirement security. The index considers 18 factors, which are grouped into four overarching categories:

Health: Health spend per capita, life expectancy, and non-insured health spend.
Quality of Life: Happiness levels, water and sanitation, air quality, other environmental factors, and biodiversity/habitat.
Material Wellbeing: Income per capita, income equality, and employment levels.
Finances in Retirement: Government debt, old-age dependency, interest rates, inflation, governance, tax pressure, and bank non-performing loans.

Using these 18 metrics, a score from 0.01 to 1 is determined for each country, which is then converted to a percentage. For a more detailed explanation of the report’s methodology, explore Appendix A (page 72) of the report.

The Top 25 Best Countries to Retire in

With an overall score of 81%, Norway comes in at number one as the most retirement-friendly country on the list.

Rank	Country	Score	Health	Quality of Life	Material Wellbeing	Finances in Retirement
1	🇳🇴 Norway	81%	91%	87%	79%	69%
2	🇨🇭 Switzerland	80%	90%	86%	69%	74%
3	🇮🇸 Iceland	79%	88%	86%	77%	68%
4	🇮🇪 Ireland	76%	89%	80%	67%	70%
5	🇦🇺 Australia	75%	88%	77%	66%	72%
6	🇳🇿 New Zealand	75%	85%	81%	64%	71%
7	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	75%	91%	81%	72%	59%
8	🇳🇱 Netherlands	75%	89%	80%	78%	56%
9	🇩🇰 Denmark	74%	86%	88%	76%	54%
10	🇨🇿 Czech Republic	73%	76%	68%	84%	64%
11	🇩🇪 Germany	72%	87%	80%	71%	55%
12	🇫🇮 Finland	71%	84%	89%	63%	55%
13	🇸🇪 Sweden	71%	90%	87%	59%	56%
14	🇦🇹 Austria	71%	86%	82%	69%	54%
15	🇨🇦 Canada	71%	87%	74%	58%	67%
16	🇮🇱 Israel	70%	82%	74%	60%	66%
17	🇰🇷 South Korea	70%	80%	59%	68%	73%
18	🇺🇸 United States	69%	85%	72%	56%	67%
19	🇬🇧 United Kingdom	69%	83%	82%	61%	55%
20	🇧🇪 Belgium	69%	85%	74%	70%	51%
21	🇸🇮 Slovenia	69%	82%	69%	77%	51%
22	🇯🇵 Japan	69%	91%	67%	72%	51%
23	🇲🇹 Malta	68%	78%	61%	72%	63%
24	🇫🇷 France	66%	90%	78%	57%	48%
25	🇪🇪 Estonia	66%	68%	68%	60%	68%

Norway is at the top of this year’s ranking for several reasons. For starters, it achieved the highest score in the Health category, largely because of its high average life expectancy, which is 83 years old, or 9 years longer than the global average.

Norway also has the highest score of all the countries for Governance, a category gauged by assessing country corruption levels, political stability, and government effectiveness, and is in a three-way tie with Japan and Luxembourg in the Health category.

Second on the list is another European country, Switzerland, with an overall score of 80%. It’s the highest-ranked country for environmental factors, and it also has the highest overall score in the Finances in Retirement category.

A Regional Breakdown

While European countries dominate the top 10 in the ranking, how does Europe rank as a region as a whole? Before diving in, it’s important to note that the study actually breaks up Europe into two sections: Eastern Europe (grouped with Central Asia) and Western Europe.

Rank	Region	Overall Score
1	North America	69%
2	Western Europe	66%
3	Eastern Europe and Central Asia	49%
4	Latin America	37%
5	Asia Pacific	32%

And from a regional perspective, North America comes in first place despite the fact no countries in the region made it into the top 10. North America only has two countries included in the ranking: Canada (#15) and the U.S. (#18), which both rank relatively high.

In contrast, Western and Eastern Europe have more countries to account for, which ultimately lowers their regional average.

The Future of Retirement

As longevity rises and the retirement aged population continues to increase worldwide, many countries are opting to change their pension policies in an effort to encourage people to stay in the workforce longer.

For instance, in 2018, people in the UK could claim their State Pension once they turned 65. By 2028, this age requirement will be raised to 67.

However, government intervention may not be necessary, as many people around the world are already staying in the workforce beyond the traditional retirement age (perhaps more out of necessity than choice).