2014 Global Findex microdata provides a closer look at people’s use of financial services

We’ve just rolled out the 2014 Global Findex microdata, which features about 1,000 individual-level surveys on financial inclusion for 143 economies worldwide. Check it out at the Findex homepage or in the World Bank 's Data Catalogue.
 

 

The microdata lets you splice and dice the Findex indicators by age, education, gender, and income quintiles. Let's say you work on gender programs in Kenya and want to come up with ways to help women get bank accounts. From the main Findex data portal, we find that 71% of Kenyan women have an account. How about the 29% who are unbanked – what reasons do they give for lacking an account? How many of them use informal savings and belong to the poorest 20% of households? Those are the sorts of things the microdata can help you with.
 
In addition to being comparable across economies, the microdata is very recent. It was all collected in 2014 as part of the Gallup World Poll. For a detailed breakdown of the survey methodology and headline Findex findings, see our working paper. 

You may remember that last April we added to the World Bank’s DataBank the 2014 Global Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) database, the world's most detailed gauge of how adults use bank accounts, make payments, and otherwise manage their finances. It continues to be a big hit. Our data has made headlines in the Financial Times, BuzzFeed, the Wall Street Journal, and the Huffington Post. Our team members have already presented on five continents!
 
So fire up Stata, download the new data, and run your regressions. Be sure to share your discoveries with us on Twitter @globalfindex or in the comment field below.