New Hampshire tops the list for financial literacy among states, according to a survey from WalletHub, a personal finance web site.

It measured financial literacy using 10 different metrics, five related to knowledge and education, and five related to planning and daily habits.

New Hampshire was followed by Utah, Virginia, New Jersey and Minnesota. The bottom of the list was headed up by Mississippi. It was followed by Arkansas, Nevada, Louisiana and New Mexico.

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New Hampshire placed first for lowest high-school dropout rate (1.2 percent), Arizona took first for most people with a rainy day fund (53 percent) and New Hampshire ranked first for least unbanked households (1.9 percent).

Maryland placed first for most sustainable spending habits and New Jersey took first for lowest non-bank borrowing rate (16 percent).

So what can we do to improve financial literacy?

"At the macro level students and citizens need to understand the fiscal policies and the monetary policies that are taking place and figure out how that affects their lives," Anand Reddy Marri of Columbia University's Teachers College, said in a statement.

"At the micro level they need to understand personal finance to figure out about savings and consumption, managing risk and so forth."

Financial literacy courses in high school affect the financial conduct of students long afterward, according to a study by EverFi and Higher One, which help create financial literacy programs, USA Today reports.

"This at least shows some evidence for the first time that high school preparation does make a difference," Mary Johnson, director of financial literacy for Higher One, told the paper.

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