Financial Literacy: Empirical Sociological Approaches

The recent financial crises that started in the USA and spread all over Europe highlighted the importance of research in the field of financial culture. A variety of research projects pointed out that the general population’s financial literacy is lacking basic knowledge. The ever changing economic climate, demographic changes, tendencies in the financial processing sector and the acceleration in product innovation put considerable pressure on the everyday decision making process of a household. The overview of the international and national research on the subject proves that the improving of the population’s, especially the young people’s financial literacy is a priority both in leading economic countries and in Hungary, too. The idea of financial culture is as complex as the variety of research into the topic proves it. This article aims to point out the complicated nature of the notion and the variety of research that has been inserted into it.