What does money management and financial literacy look like for the estimated 27.7 million teenagers aged 13-19 in this country?

That’s what I set out to find and research over the last several months.

I’ve put together this teenager money management statistics page to not only share what I found, but to also give a home to additional details and surveys as I find them.

You can draw your own conclusions after reading through the snippets below, but I’d like to share a few of mine:

• Teenagers still look to their parents as their No. 1 source (69%) for money advice – whether their parents feel confident about money or not (only 57% of adults int he U.S. are financially literate). Teachers/educators did not make their list at all.
• 33% of our teens prefer full-service restaurants, which means we need to be teaching them how to tip.
• Cash is still king with this group – one study found that 85% of teens use cash to make transactions versus other payment methods.
• 35% of teens in one survey still do not have a bank account (!!). Hopefully, most of these teens will get a bank account as a young adult and not fall trap to the disadvantages of the unbanked or underbanked Americans as an adult (can my parents make me a PayPal account?)

Let’s dig in.

Teenage Financial Literacy Statistics

Before we talk about how teenagers get their money and all the ways they manage it, let’s briefly go over financial literacy statistics for high school students.

You know, things like how confident teenagers feel about managing money, or what they were taught in school, or who they turn to when they need some money advice.

Money Education in School Vs. at Home

When asked “Where, or from whom, did you learn about basic financial concepts like budgeting and saving?”, 47% of the 1,027 15-21-year-olds surveyed said from parents/guardians, and only 19% said from a high school or college course/class.

Notice how schools or teachers didn’t show up anywhere on this list? That was surprising.

But maybe it shouldn’t have been.

There’s often a disconnect about what personal finance topics are taught to students in school, and what is being taught about personal finance at home.

Not only that, but many states still have no mandated personal finance teaching requirements. Currently, Only 23 states have personal finance requirements in schools.

While some schools, and some teachers, take it upon themselves to squeeze in personal finance curriculum and lessons whenever they can (with some states like Nebraska, allowing local schools to decide their own graduation and coursework requirements) – the stats aren’t entirely encouraging.

• Step’s survey of a demographically representative sample of 1,359 customers in 2021, aged 13 to 18, revealed that “66% of teens aren’t receiving any type of personal finance education in school.”
• 2022 JA Teens & Personal Finance Survey of 1,000 teens aged 13 – 18 shows that 41% have had no financial literacy classes in school.
• “Less than 20% of teachers reported feeling “very competent” to teach any of the six personal finance topics surveyed” (PDF) (and only 11.6% of K-12 teachers had taken a workshop on teaching personal finance).
• Find your own state's grade for Financial Literacy, based on The American Public Education Foundation's work on The Nation's Report Card on Financial Literacy.

What Do Teens Feel Confident they Know about Money?

As far as what teenagers feel that they know about money, this survey of a demographically representative sample of 1,290 users in 2021, aged 13 to 17, shows that:

• 70% of teens know what a credit score is
• 56% of teens are aware of cryptocurrency
• 55% understand how the stimulus bill works
• 40% of surveyed teens think that financial independence means not relying on parents for money
• 22% think it means it’ll allow them to pursue their dreams without restraint

Let’s move onto how teens are getting money, and what they’re doing with it.

Hint: you also might want to check out common teenage financial problems.

The 2022 JA Teens & Personal Finance Survey of 1,000 teens aged 13 – 18 shows that:

• 54% of teens to say they feel unprepared to finance their futures
• 69% say their plans for additional education after high school are impacted due to rising education costs
• 62% of teens using mobile apps as a tool to manage their money
• 9% of teens use checkbooks
• 24% of teens use credit cards
• 59% of teens use debit cards
• 20% of teen’s parents use apps to give them money, while 57% of parents use cash to give money to teens

The Harris Poll surveyed 3,054 U.S. adults and teens ages 15 and older in 2019 for TD Ameritrade (PDF). – 1,027 of them were aged 15-21. They found that 58% of teens aged 15-21 expect to be more successful than their parents.  

Teenage Money Management Statistics

How much money do teens have to spend, and where are they getting this money from? What does teen employment look like, and are teenagers saving money towards the future?

All of these questions and more will be answered by data here in the teenage money management statistics section.

How Much Money Do Teens Have to Spend?

According to the Fall 2021 Piper Sandler Taking Stock of Teen survey (PDF), 35% of teens surveyed did not have a bank account.

Which might contribute to the 85% of teens who use cash to make a transaction, versus other payment methods (35% Apply Pay, 22% PayPal, 18% Prepaid Card, 17% checks, 13% Amazon Pay, etc.).

Where Do Teens Get their Money to Spend?

Teenagers get money into their hands to manage and spend in a few different ways:

• Spending money from their parents
• Earned, through a job or chore commissions
• Given to them through an allowance
• Investing their money (one study found an astounding 27% of kids invested in cryptocurrency and 28% invested in stocks in 2021 (PDF))
• Starting their own business or side hustling

A 2019 study by Junior Achievement found the following after surveying 1,000 teens aged 13-18 (PDF):

• 22% of teens earned money
• 64% of teens depend on gifts for spending money
• 32% of teens receive allowance for doing chores

GoHenry’s 2022 Youth Economy Report, created from surveying 2,007 U.S. kids aged 6-18 years old, found the following average weekly allowance amounts:

• Age 13: $10.33/week
• Age 14: $12.22/week
• Age 15: $13.42/week
• Age 16: $15.40/week
• Age 17: $16.85/week
• Age 18: $16.34/week

Teen Employment Statistics

Piper Sandler’s Taking Stock of Teens study revealed that 39% of the 7,100 teens surveyed hold a part-time job.

Here’s the Teen Unemployment Rate, which is adjusted seasonally (in July, 2022 it’s at 11.5%).

Hint: the definition of unemployed is to be available and actively searching for work but to have not found any yet.

FYI:

• The Teen Unemployment Rate includes teens aged 16 – 19 years old.
• The Youth Unemployment Rate includes teens aged 15 – 24 years old.

Pew Research found that in 2021, 36.6% of teens had a paying job for at least part of the summer.

Apparently, a TD Ameritrade’s Summer Jobs and Internships survey of 2,001 teens (ages 13 to 19) found that on average, teens got their first paid job at age 14 (I say “apparently”, because I can no longer find the original study anywhere – here's an article talking about it).

Here’s a great 2022 study of the teen summer labor market from the Center for Labor Markets and Policy, Drexel University (PDF).

What Do Teens Earn when they Work?

Ever wondered how much money should a teenager make? Let me lay out the stats for you.

• Current federal minimum wage: $7.25/hour. Remember that if a state has a higher minimum wage than the federal one, that is the one that is in effect. 18 states currently have a higher minimum wage than the federally set one.
• Average Hourly Wage for Teens: $10.03/hour. Wow was this number difficult to track down. I eventually ended up calling the Bureau of Labor Statistics, who confirmed that they do not break this number down by demographics.
• Average Salary for Teens (16-19): $460/week. This is for full-time wage and salary earners.
• Youth Minimum Wage: By law, an employer is allowed to pay a teen (under 20 years of age) less than the federal minimum age – as low as $4.25/hour – for the first 90 calendar days of employment.

Psst: beat the minimum wage with these high paying jobs for teens. And don’t forget to check out all the 12 sources of income for 18-year-olds.

What Do Teens Spend their Money On?

Piper Sandler has been surveying teens to understand their discretionary spending habits (and more) since 2001 (hey…I was still a teen then!).

In their latest Taking Stock with Teens report (Spring, 2022), they surveyed 7,100 teens. Here’s some key findings:

• 46% of teens have purchased secondhand items, and 56% of teens have sold secondhand items
• Beauty spending (cosmetics, skincare, fragrance) accounts for $264 of that spending
• Nike is the No. 1 clothing brand teens spend money on, followed by American Eagle, and then Lululemon
• Male teens spend $51 more on shoes than female teens
• Food spending accounts for 22% of spending for upper-income teens
• Three favorite restaurants to spend money at: Chick-Fil-A, Starbucks, and Chipotle
• 33% of teens surveyed prefer full-service restaurants, while 67% prefer limited service restaurants (do those 33% know how to leave tips?)

What Percent of Teens have Started Saving?

The Harris Poll surveyed 3,054 U.S. adults and teens ages 15 and older in 2019 for TD Ameritrade (PDF) – 1,027 of them were aged 15-21.

They found that 62% of teens aged 15-21 have started saving money, in the following amounts:

• $1-$20: 26%
• $21-$50: 21%
• $51-$200: 34%
• $201-$500: 13%
• <$500: 7%

Here’s what they’re saving for:

• Education for Myself: 32%
• Car/Vehicle: 27%
• Clothes: 27%
• Emergency Fund: 24%
• Vacation: 22%
• Gifts/Holiday Purchases: 20%
• A New Tech Device: 19%
• Concerts/Entertainment: 18%
• Etc.

Still, 30% of teens aged 15-20 save $0 in a “typical month”.

23% of teens aged 15-21 have an emergency fund that can cover, on average, 5 months of expenses.

How Many Teens have a Budget?

The Harris Poll surveyed 3,054 U.S. adults and teens ages 15 and older in 2019 for TD Ameritrade (PDF) – 1,027 of them were aged 15-21.

They found out the following about 15-21-year-olds:

• 31% have a budget and follow it carefully
• 30% have a budget but don’t follow it very carefully
• 13% don’t have a budget because they don’t know how to yet
• 19% don’t have a budget because they feel they’re too young to have one
• 7% have no desire to budget

Teen Financial Goals

2019 JA Teens & Personal Finance Survey (PDF) of 1,000 teens aged 13 – 18 revealed the following financial goals:

• Getting a full-time job (62%)
• Graduating from a 4-year college (59%)
• No longer having to rely on parents or caregivers for money (53%)
• Saving enough money for a big trip or vacation (41%)
• Sticking to a budget was a goal (33%)
• Starting a business (26%)
• Retiring before the age of 65 (23%)
• Graduate from a two-year college (16%)

Really inspiring, fully 93% of the teens surveyed had a financial goal!

You know teaching your teens about money is very important. I'm here to help.