More States Require Personal Finance Courses as Financial Literacy Lags
U.S. students aged 15 through 18 have seen modest but inconsistent changes in financial literacy over the past five years. Results from the National Financial Educators Council’s National Financial Literacy Test showed high schoolers scored an average of 64% in 2025, average of 64% in 2025, down from 66.20% in 2024. Since 2020, average scores have hovered between 64% and 66%.
The most recent results included scores from 107,141 participants who completed a 30-question assessment measuring competency across 10 areas of money management. Areas covered in the test include investments and personal finance planning; risk management and insurance; loans and debt; budgeting; entrepreneurship; and account management.
The average U.S. score across all age ranges was 67.4% in 2025, nearly 3 percentage points behind the council’s 70% benchmark for minimum proficiency.
Experts say weaker financial literacy has long-term implications for retirement preparedness, including delayed participation in employer-sponsored retirement plans and lower contribution rates.
“Nationwide testing demonstrates that the average person lacks the basic financial knowledge he or she needs to make qualified financial decisions. Testing is just an indicator of content knowledge,” said Vince Shorb, the NFEC’s CEO, in a statement. “But unlike other subject matters taught in school, financial literacy requires more than just understanding content. It requires learners to be able to adjust their daily financial behaviors and have enough knowledge to make confident financial decisions.”
Separate findings point to policy momentum, even as performance lags. The Council for Economic Education found the number of states requiring personal finance courses for high school graduation has risen to 39, up from 35 in 2024.
The increase comes from four states—California, Delaware, Colorado and Hawaii—mandating a personal finance course lasting at least one semester as a requirement for graduation, affecting an estimated 2.3 million high school students.
Kentucky and Texas also strengthened their existing requirements by shifting from embedded personal finance instruction within other courses to dedicated, stand‑alone classes.
However, the same survey found a decline in the number of states requiring general economics coursework for graduation: 22 states mandate economics for graduation, down from 26 in 2024, as Texas, California and Indiana replaced stand-alone economics courses with personal finance requirements.
