Clear patterns emerge in saving across age groups. In both developing and highincome economies the share of those who report having saved formally in the past year varies little across income quintiles among young adults (those ages 15–24) and among older adults (those age 65 and above), who are likely to be retired. And there is little difference between adults in these age groups and adults ages 25–64, who are most likely to be in the workforce. But among these working-age adults the share of those who report formal saving more than doubles from the poorest to the richest income quintile in all economies on average—and rises from 10 percent to 38 percent in developing economies.

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## **Savings behavior among account holders**

Adults with a formal account by savings behavior in the past year (%) <!-- Start of picture text --> 100<br>DID NOT SAVE<br>80<br>SAVED<br>USING OTHER<br>60 METHODS ONLY<br>40<br>SAVED<br>FORMALLY<br>20<br>0<br>EUROPE MIDDLE EAST LATIN SOUTH EAST ASIA HIGH- SUB-<br>& CENTRAL & NORTH AMERICA ASIA & PACIFIC INCOME SAHARAN<br>ASIA AFRICA & CARIBBEAN ECONOMIES AFRICA<br>Source: Demirguc-Kunt and Klapper 2012.<br><!-- End of picture text --> This is unsurprising: working-age adults could be expected to have a greater propensity to save formally—and this propensity could be expected to rise with income. Yet the Global Findex data also show a gap of about 28 percentage points between developing and high-income economies in the share of working-age adults who report having saved formally in the past year—a gap that persists across all income quintiles.

# **How does savings behavior vary among account holders?**

Having a formal account does not necessarily imply formal saving; even among account holders there is great variation in the use of formal accounts to save (figure 2.3). Worldwide, about 43 percent of account holders report having saved or set aside money at a formal financial institution in the past 12 months. In high-income economies, East Asia and the Pacific, and Sub-Saharan Africa about half of account holders report having saved using a formal account in the past 12 months. This suggests that in these groups of economies the ability to save in a secure location may be an important reason why people open and maintain a formal account. In Indonesia and Tanzania, for example, about 70 percent of account holders report having saved or set aside money at a financial institution in the past 12 months. The security of a bank, credit union, or microfinance institution may be particularly attractive to savers in fragile states: more than 75 percent of account holders in Haiti and Sierra Leone report formal saving in the past year, though less than 25 percent of adults in these countries have a formal account.

In Europe and Central Asia, by contrast, saving does not appear to be a primary use of formal accounts. In that region less than one in six adults with a formal account reports having saved or set aside money using a formal account in the past 12 months. In Georgia just 3 percent of account holders (and 1 percent of all adults) report having saved using a formal account in the past year. As reported in the previous chapter, adults in Europe and Central Asia are particularly likely to

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MEASURING FINANCIAL INCLUSION