One-fifth of residents have never saved money and live paycheck to paycheck - 'one day at a time'.
In Latvia, 17% of residents have never saved money for unexpected expenses, reported the press service of a Latvian commercial bank, citing data from a conducted survey.
It was also found that 43% of residents in Latvia save irregularly, while 14% are able to regularly set aside more than one-tenth of their income.
Residents in Lithuania and Estonia have more stable saving habits, the bank notes. Specifically, in Lithuania, 23% of respondents regularly save more than one-tenth of their income, while in Estonia, the figure is 17%.
These data indicate that there is still a significant potential for improving the financial literacy of the population in Latvia. People without savings often find themselves in situations where they have to take out loans to cover unexpected expenses.
According to the survey, men (18%) are more likely than women (11%) to regularly set aside more than one-tenth of their income. At the same time, women are more likely to engage in irregular saving practices — 46% responded this way, compared to 40% of men.
Among people with low incomes (up to 550 euros per month), only 9% are able to save more than one-tenth of their income. This share significantly increases with higher incomes: in the group with incomes from 751 to 1000 euros, it is 19%, and among those earning from 1250 to 1500 euros and above, about a quarter of residents in Latvia regularly save at least 10% of their income.
The most active savers in Latvia are residents under 30 years old — 19% of them regularly set aside more than 10% of their income. However, this figure decreases with each subsequent decade, and after the age of 50, the volume of savings significantly diminishes. People over 60 are more likely than others to state that they feel sufficiently secure with their current level of savings and do not intend to increase them.
The survey in the Baltic countries was conducted in September 2025 in collaboration with the research agency "Norstat". A total of 3002 respondents aged 18 to 74 were surveyed online.
