In Tuscany, more women in financial education

Tuscan women push the data on financial education. According to the Edufin Index, Tuscany is the region in Central Italy where the population has a better financial attitude, so much so as to have numbers higher than the national average and to be the only one with an index equal to that of the northern regions: Tuscan women achieve an Edufin Index of 56 compared to 60 for men (in Italy, women 54 vs. men 59).

No Italian region achieves a sufficiency rating (60), but Tuscany, together with Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, is among those that come closest, compared to a national average of 56: this is mainly due to particularly attentive behaviour with regard to personal financial management. The Behavioural Index reaches 61 in Tuscany, exceeding the national average (58) by a good three points and also the average for the northern regions.

The Edufin Index is the Observatory on Italians' financial and insurance awareness and behaviour, promoted by Alleanza Assicurazioni together with the Mario Gasbarri Foundation and with the scientific collaboration of SDA Bocconi, School of Management. The data it provides are the result of the average of two indicators: the Awareness Index, which records the sphere of financial knowledge of Italians, and the Behavioural Index constructed to measure financial and insurance behaviour and attitudes and which concerns the sphere of doing. It is constructed on a 0-100 scale with the sufficiency being reached at 60.

This year is its second edition and the theme of gender remains at the heart of the initiative, as Claudia Ghinfanti, Alleanza Assicurazioni's Head of Marketing and Communication, explained: 'With this tour we want to contribute to improving women's financial independence: an effective tool for emancipation, female empowerment and personal protection in a country like ours, where about one in three of the violence reported by women is of an economic nature'.

And there is still a lot to be done on the subject, because even if, according to the Observatory, in 2023 the percentage of the national population reaching the sufficiency level has increased from 34% in 2022 to the current 41%, the gender gap on the level of financial and insurance literacy remains high: 54 women vs 59 men. A high percentage of women are financially fragile: 30% vs. 23% of men. When it comes to managing the household budget independently, the gap also remains wide: 65% of women are not autonomous (vs. 56% of men).