5 Countries With the Highest Savings Rate (the U.S. Isn't Even Close)

While the U.S. is a wealthy country, our economic status doesn't always translate to American households saving money. It's not easy to squirrel money away, which is probably why 33% of Americans have no savings, according to Ramsey Solutions.

Here's how America's household savings rate stacks up to other countries and a few tips to help build your savings.

Countries with the highest savings rates

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) tracks the household savings rate by country, and the latest data from the OECD shows citizens in the following countries are the thriftiest:

• Switzerland: 19.3% savings rate
• Sweden: 13.3% savings rate
• Netherlands: 12.3% savings rate
• Luxembourg: 11.6% savings rate
• France: 11.2% savings rate

The U.S. household savings rate is relatively low

The OECD doesn't have the latest data for the U.S. household savings rate. But information from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston shows that in the three years leading up to the pandemic, the average U.S. savings rate was just 6.2%. Ouch.

And data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis isn't much better. The organization says America's long-term savings rate average is 8.4%, and the current U.S. savings rate is just 3.7%.

After stimulus checks helped boost America's savings during the pandemic, soaring inflation -- including expensive housing costs -- has made it more difficult for Americans to find extra money to put into their bank accounts.

Economists have different theories about why Americans save less, including government economic policies, housing costs, spending habits, and slowing income growth. Whatever the culprit, it's clear Americans typically stash away less cash.

How to improve your personal savings rate

Most financial experts recommend putting $1,000 into savings to use for emergencies. That may seem like an impossible amount if you're just getting started. But you can make a few moves to quickly improve your personal savings rate. Here are just a few.

1. Find a few ways to cut back on spending

Combing through your spending habits is a good way to discover expenses you may not have remembered were there and cut them out. I recently did this with my monthly subscriptions and found they were much more expensive than I remembered.

I cut out my Apple TV+ subscription -- after catching up on Slow Horses, of course -- and also cut out website hosting I wasn't using. Between the two, I saved $25 in monthly expenses. That's not a huge amount, but it took nearly zero effort on my part to save that money.

I manually combed through my online bank statements, which took way too long. I probably would have benefited from using a budgeting app to track down extra expenses.

2. Open a high-yield savings account

There are a couple of reasons why opening a high-yield savings account can help you improve your savings. The most obvious is that a higher interest rate will help your money grow faster. Some banks are paying more than 5% interest right now, making it easier than ever to grow your money.

The second reason is that some banks offer bonuses when you open a savings account and deposit a certain amount or set up automatic deposits. Opening an account with a cash bonus could add several hundred dollars to your savings.

The bonus could go a long way to helping you reach your financial goals without having to put in much effort.

3. Automate deposits

Once you've found one or two ways to cut back on spending and opened a high-yield savings account, the next step is to automate your savings.

It might seem unnecessary to set up automatic deposits rather than just move your money manually. But automating the process ensures you never forget to save money and removes the chance you'll talk yourself out of it.

Plus, when you automate deposits to your savings account, you may be less likely to spend that money. This psychological trick works for me, as I'm far less willing to spend money that's in my savings account than I am with money in my checking account.

It's worth mentioning that no amount is too small to start saving. While you want to eventually have at least $1,000 in an emergency fund, contributing regularly to your savings account is the primary goal.