11 Photo: BRAC World via Flickr. SONJA KELLY / EVELYN STARK Does Greater Inclusion Lead to Financial Health? New Research Raises Pointed Questions for the Industry What conditions create physical health? We know more now than we ever have—working out, eating lots of vegetables and limiting alcohol intake seem to be healthy decisions. But there is no one agreed-upon set of conditions for physical health and wellness. Rather, there is a body of literature that provides clues about different aspects of health. For instance, nutrition literature makes it clear that broccoli is a better food choice than bacon, and data shows us that doing yoga is healthier than watching TV. In the same way, the new Gallup Global Financial Health Study  gives us additional language and data to understand more about what drives different aspects of financial health. No single perspective on financial health constitutes a definitive “theory of everything,” but the new Gallup data contributes significantly to our understanding of how to make financial inclusion work for customers. This dataset comes at the perfect time— right on the heels of the Global Findex launch—and with it, we can start to ask ourselves with humility if financial inclusion is leading to financial health. ‘AN UNPRECEDENTED LOOK AT PERSONAL FINANCE’ First, some background about the Gallup survey. The financial inclusion field has benefited greatly from excellent surveying and reporting, from financial diaries projects in multiple countries to huge global databases such as the World Bank’s Global Financial Index, or Findex, which gathers and analyzes sex- and age-disaggregated data on account ownership, transaction patterns,