Exploring The Thematic Structure of Youth Financial Literacy Research: A Co-Word Analysis (2005–2025)

This study investigates the development and thematic structure of research on young people’s financial literacy over the past two decades using co-word analysis. Based on 432 articles indexed in the Scopus database and published between 2005 and August 2025, the study employs a text-based bibliometric approach to identify key concepts, thematic relationships, and emerging research dimensions. Co-word analysis was conducted using VOSviewer (version 1.6.20), with keywords occurring at least eight times selected for analysis. The analysis identified 61 keywords grouped into four thematic dimensions: educational and behavioural, demographic and gender, age and stages of development, and economic and disciplinary. The findings indicate that financial literacy has evolved from a predominantly knowledge-based concept towards a more holistic and multidimensional field encompassing financial behaviour, financial education, demographic characteristics, developmental stages, and economic contexts. The keyword relationships further highlight strong connections between financial literacy and financial education, financial behaviour, gender, age, socio-economic status, and young people’s financial experiences. The findings also demonstrate that youth financial literacy is influenced by both individual characteristics and the broader educational and economic environments in which young people develop. Overall, the thematic structure provides an overview of the major research areas and conceptual developments that have shaped youth financial literacy research over the past two decades. The study contributes to the literature by mapping the thematic development and concentration of the field while identifying areas that warrant further investigation. The findings provide useful insights for researchers, educators, policymakers, and financial institutions in designing more targeted and context-specific financial literacy initiatives for young people.
Keywords: financial literacy, youth, bibliometric analysis, science mapping, financial behavior, education

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