Four in five adults now have a bank or mobile money account, but 1.3 billion still have none, and many of those who do cannot save, borrow or cope with an emergency on affordable terms.
Updated October 14, 2026. Written from the sources listed below, not independently peer-reviewed.
About 1.3 billion adults worldwide have no bank or mobile money account. How many of them own a mobile phone?
1.3 billion
Adults without an account
79% of adults worldwide had a bank, other financial institution or mobile money account in 2024, up from 74% in 2021.
Data year 2024. Source: World Bank, Let's Talk Development blog, 2025
40%
Adults in low- and middle-income economies who saved in an account
Up from 24% in 2021, the fastest increase in more than a decade. Survey of 141 economies.
Data year 2024. Source: World Bank, 2025
6.36%
Average cost of sending a remittance
Global average total cost (fee plus exchange rate margin) in the third quarter of 2025, against an SDG target of 3% by 2030.
Data year 2025. Source: World Bank, 2026
Global Findex survey values for adults aged 15 and over, including mobile money accounts. Only the three values reported in the 2025 data book are shown; the survey is carried out every three to four years.
Target 8.10 sets no numerical goal for access, but target 10.c asks that the global average cost of remittances fall below 3% by 2030. The World Bank recorded 6.36% in the third quarter of 2025, almost the same as the 6.30% of the third quarter of 2021, although costs have fallen from 9.67% in early 2009 and 83% of corridors now offer some service below 5%.
In 2024, 58% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa and 46% in low-income countries had an account, compared with 75% across all low- and middle-income economies.
Source: World Bank, 2025About 700 million women worldwide still have no account. In sub-Saharan Africa women are 12 percentage points less likely than men to have one, and only half of unbanked women in the region own a mobile phone.
Source: World Bank, Data Blog, 2025In low- and middle-income economies, 68% of adults in the poorest 40% of households and 59% of adults outside the labour force had an account in 2024, below the 75% average.
Source: World Bank, 2025Only 44% of adults in the poorest 40% of households in low- and middle-income economies could reliably access extra money in an emergency, compared with 56% of all adults.
Source: World Bank, 2025Each country is shaded by its latest available value, so you can see where the gap is widest. Hover or tap a country, search for one, or open the full table.
Loading country values…
Values in % of adults (15+).
Share of adults aged 15 and over who report no account at a bank, other financial institution or mobile money provider (100 minus account ownership). Latest Global Findex survey per country, so years differ: most values are from 2024, some from 2017 or 2021. Survey estimates with sampling error; many small and fragile states are not surveyed, and owning an account does not mean it is used.
Source: Global Findex Database (World Bank), via World Bank Open Data. Latest year available per country; years differ.
Values load from World Bank Open Data. Simplified Natural Earth borders; they imply no position on disputed territories.
Instead of one “percent solved” score, DO GOOD rates three separate dimensions. A problem can have mature solutions that still reach too few people. These ratings are an editorial reading of the sources on this page, not a measured index.
Has the situation improved in the real world?
ModerateAccount ownership rose from about half to four in five adults between 2011 and 2024, and formal saving in low- and middle-income economies jumped in just three years. Yet 1.3 billion adults remain without an account and only about half of adults in these economies could reliably raise money in an emergency.
How mature and validated are the available solutions?
ModerateMobile money and paying wages and government transfers into accounts are proven ways to bring people into the formal system. Products that reliably improve savings, credit and insurance for poor households are less settled, and the evidence on how much accounts reduce poverty is still debated.
How widely are effective solutions actually used?
ModerateMobile money has 2.3 billion registered accounts, but only about a quarter are used in a given month, and only about one in four adults in low- and middle-income economies borrow formally.
The Global Findex is a large, comparable household survey repeated since 2011, which makes account and usage figures fairly robust. It is carried out only every few years, some fragile countries have not been surveyed recently, and good cross-country data on insurance and on the quality and cost of services are scarce.
Account ownership and formal saving rose clearly between 2021 and 2024, driven largely by mobile money. Progress is uneven: financial resilience has not improved since 2021, the mobile money gender gap has not closed, and remittance costs have barely changed in four years.
Financial inclusion means that people can keep money safely, send and receive payments, save, borrow and insure themselves against shocks through services that are affordable and suited to them. Without an account, wages and benefits arrive as cash that is easy to lose or have stolen, savings sit under the mattress or in livestock, and a medical bill or a failed harvest has to be covered by selling assets, borrowing from moneylenders or cutting back on food and schooling. The World Bank's Global Findex survey found that 79% of adults worldwide had an account in 2024, up from 51% in 2011, but 1.3 billion adults still had none.
The gaps are largest in low-income countries and in sub-Saharan Africa, and among women, poorer households and people outside the labour force. Owning an account is also only a first step: in low- and middle-income economies about four in ten adults saved in an account in 2024 and about one in four borrowed from a formal lender, while slightly more than half said they could find extra money in an emergency. Migrants sending money home still pay on average more than twice the 3% cost that countries agreed to reach by 2030, and the most expensive region to send money to is sub-Saharan Africa.
SDG target 8.10 asks countries to strengthen domestic financial institutions and expand access to banking, insurance and financial services for all, and target 10.c asks that the cost of sending remittances fall below 3% by 2030. The measures used most often are:
Account ownership
The share of people aged 15 and over who report having an account, alone or with someone else, at a bank or similar financial institution, or who personally used a mobile money service in the past 12 months. It is measured by the World Bank's Global Findex survey, which covered 141 economies in its 2025 edition.
Use of financial services
Whether people actually use their accounts: making or receiving digital payments, saving formally, and borrowing from a bank, other financial institution or mobile money provider rather than from family, friends or informal lenders.
Financial resilience
Whether adults could reliably come up with extra money in an emergency, and how long they could cover their expenses if they lost their main source of income.
Cost of remittances
The World Bank's Remittance Prices Worldwide database records the total cost of sending money between countries, made up of the transfer fee and the exchange rate margin, and reports a global average across hundreds of country corridors each quarter.
What works
Accounts linked to a mobile phone number let people store, send and receive money without a bank branch. In 2025 there were 2.3 billion registered mobile money accounts worldwide and more than US$2 trillion flowed through them, with most new users in sub-Saharan Africa.
Limits
Roughly three in four accounts are not used in a given month, women are less likely than men to own and use one, and fees, agent networks and network coverage still limit use in poor and rural areas.
What works
Many people open their first account because money arrives in it: 43% of adults in low- and middle-income economies opened their first account to receive a payment from an employer or the government, and about two-thirds of government payment recipients were paid digitally.
Limits
Recipients often withdraw everything at once if cash is needed for daily purchases, and an account opened only for transfers may not be used for saving or other services.
What works
Low-cost or fee-free accounts with fewer requirements for opening, often combined with tiered customer checks that allow small balances with limited documents, lower the barriers of cost and paperwork that keep poor households out.
Limits
People without any official identity document can still be excluded, and an account with no money to put in does not help; lack of money is the most common reason people give for not having one.
What works
Community savings clubs remain a key way to save where formal services are thin: 17% of adults in low- and middle-income economies and 28% in sub-Saharan Africa used one in 2024. Linking such groups and simple savings products to accounts can make savings safer.
Limits
Informal groups offer little protection if money is lost or stolen, while formal products may carry fees or minimum balances that outweigh the small amounts poor households can put aside.
What works
Sending money digitally cost 4.59% on average in the third quarter of 2025, compared with 7.30% for non-digital transfers, and receiving into a mobile wallet or card is cheaper than cash. Competition, transparent pricing and comparison websites push prices down.
Limits
Banks remain by far the most expensive providers, averaging about 15%, and the global average is still more than twice the 3% target, especially for transfers to sub-Saharan Africa.
Promising, but not proven at scale. The stage shows how far each approach has come; it is not a recommendation.
Small loans offered and repaid through mobile money accounts, often decided by algorithms using phone and payment data, are the most widely offered additional service among mobile money providers. Concerns remain about high costs, repeat borrowing and weak consumer protection.
Health, life and crop cover with small premiums paid from a mobile wallet could protect households against shocks. The number of mobile money providers offering insurance grew by about a third in 2025, but uptake, claims payouts and value for customers are still unproven at scale.
National systems that let money move instantly between banks, mobile money providers and other payment services at low cost could make digital payments as easy as cash. Several countries run them, but their effect on the poorest and most rural users is not yet well documented.
Implementation gap
Lack of money is the main reason unbanked adults give for not having an account. For households with very low and irregular incomes, fees and travel costs can outweigh the benefits.
Implementation gap
Close to three-quarters of registered mobile money accounts are not active in a given month, so headline ownership figures overstate how many people actually benefit.
Technology gap
Mobile phones are the main route into accounts for the unbanked, but only half of unbanked women in sub-Saharan Africa own one, and women everywhere are less likely than men to own a phone.
Coordination gap
Sending money to sub-Saharan Africa cost an average of 8.46% in the third quarter of 2025, and banks charged close to 15% on average. In some corridors few people at the receiving end have an account, which limits cheaper digital options.
Coordination gap
About a quarter of mobile money providers say regulations on transferring data across borders have hindered their operations, and differing identity, licensing and consumer protection rules make it harder to offer services in several countries.
Knowledge gap
Surveys capture whether people have and use accounts, but much less is known about fees, fraud, over-indebtedness and whether insurance pays out, which makes it hard to judge whether services leave people better off.
Unresolved questions, not vetted breakthroughs. Answering any of them would change what is possible.
Some studies credit mobile money with lifting households out of poverty, while others find small or no effects of accounts and microcredit on income. Under what conditions financial services change living standards, and for whom, is still contested.
Fast mobile loans fill a gap for small emergencies and business needs, but it is not clear how often they lead to over-indebtedness, and which rules on pricing, disclosure and data use best protect borrowers.
Researchers are still working out how much inactivity is due to cost, distance to agents, trust, lack of income or simply lack of useful products, and which changes would turn ownership into regular use.
Small-premium health, life and weather-index insurance has had mixed uptake and payout records. It is open how to design products that people trust, renew and that actually protect them when a shock hits.
If you send money to family or friends in another country, check a price comparison service such as the World Bank's Remittance Prices Worldwide site; digital services and transfers into a mobile wallet are often cheaper than banks or cash.
If you employ a domestic worker, gardener or other helper, offer to pay into their account or mobile wallet if they want that, and cover any transfer fees so they are not worse off.
Donate to or volunteer with established groups that help people save, run savings groups or offer free and independent money advice, and look for evidence of what their programmes have achieved.
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World Bank, published 2025
Data tables from the Global Findex 2025 survey for 141 economies (data for 2024). Source of account ownership in 2011, 2021 and 2024, regional and income-group figures, formal saving and borrowing, savings clubs and financial resilience.
World Bank, Let's Talk Development blog (17 July 2025), published 2025
Launch summary of the Global Findex 2025 by its authors. Source of 79% global account ownership, 1.3 billion adults without an account and the growth of mobile money accounts in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
World Bank, published 2025
Presentation of the main Findex 2025 results. Source of the 900 million unbanked adults with a phone (530 million with a smartphone), lack of money as the main barrier, first accounts opened to receive payments, and borrowing for health.
World Bank, Data Blog (11 November 2025), published 2025
Gender analysis of the Global Findex 2025 data. Source of the 700 million women without an account, the 12-point gender gap in sub-Saharan Africa and phone ownership among unbanked women.
GSMA (press release, 24 March 2026), published 2026
Summary of the GSMA's annual industry report based on provider data. Source of 2.3 billion registered and 593 million monthly active accounts, US$2 trillion in transactions, low monthly activity, growth in insurance and credit offers, and regulatory barriers.
World Bank, published 2026
Latest quarterly report on the cost of sending remittances. Source of the 6.36% global average, earlier quarterly values, the 3% SDG 10.c target, regional averages, and costs by provider type and digital channel.