The Genworth Index is the first ever measure of consumer financial vulnerability across 10 major European markets. It was created by leading academics in this field at the European Credit Research Institute and the Personal Finance Research Centre at the University of Bristol.
The Index groups households into four segments: "Financially Vulnerable", "Strivers", "Circumspect" and "Financially Secure"
The Index score for each market is the ratio of the percentage of people who are financially vulnerable relative to those who are financially secure. In this way, the Index will track movements in and out of each category and will provide the overall situation of a country.
The Index reveals higher levels of financial vulnerability in southern Europe than in the north.
Portugal and Italy have high relative levels of financial vulnerability.
No other group feel as financially secure as 30-39 year olds in Sweden
Age, gender, occupation group, homeownership and attitudes towards credit influence financial vulnerability in different ways in each market
