Introduction
The research below has triangulated the total number of global bank accounts due to the lack of pre-compiled data. It has also provided the number of credit union account memberships for 2020 to represent the number of credit union accounts. Furthermore, we have provided the data on the growth rate of account ownership that was publicly available.
Key Takeaways
- The number of global bank accounts in 2021 was 4 billion (based on calculations).
- The number of bank accounts globally increased by 50% between 2011 and 2021.
- In 2020, there were 375.16 million credit union members across 118 countries.
Bank Account Numbers
- The number of global bank accounts in 2021 was 4 billion (based on calculations).
- Bank account ownership in 2021 reached 79% of the global adult population.
- The number of bank accounts globally increased by 50% between 2011 and 2021.
- Between 2017 and 2021, “the average rate of account ownership in developing economies increased by 8 percentage points, from 63% to 71%.”
- OECD defines the working age as people aged between 15 years — 64 years. The population of this age group also considered adults/economically active comprised 65% of the total global population in 2021.
- The UN projected that the 2021 global population was 7.87 billion as of July 2021.
Source  
Credit Union Numbers
- In 2020, there were 375.16 million credit union members across 118 countries.
- The number of credit union members increased 29% from 291 million in 2019 to 375.16 million in 2020.
Source  
Research Strategy
To provide the total number of global bank and/or credit union accounts, we leveraged the most reputable sources available in the public domain, including market reports from the World Bank and the World Council of Credit Unions. However, data on the actual number of global bank accounts were unavailable. Thus we decided to triangulate the number using the Worldwide account ownership percentage and the global population as variables in the formula below.
Calculation
Global Bank Accounts = % of worldwide account ownership * global Adult PopulationGlobal Adult Population = % of global adult population * global population
Global Adult Population = 65% * 7.87 billion = 5.12 billion people
Global Bank Accounts = 79% * 5.12 billion = 4.0 billion accounts
Support provided by
This research project was made possible by Brale.