Zakat Literacy among University Students and Factors Influenced It
Clarashinta Canggih, Rachma Indrarini and Prayudi Setiawan Prabowo
Islamic Economic Study, Economic Faculty, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Surabaya, Indonesia
Keywords: Zakat Literacy, Islamic Economics Student, Age, Gender, Knowledge.
Abstract: Zakat is one of obligatory worship that could lessen economic disparity among people. However, there is
wide gap between potency and realization of zakat fund in Indonesia. One of the possible sources of the zakat
gap is the lack of zakat literacy in the society. This research aimed to identify zakat literacy of Islamic
Economics Students Universitas Negeri Surabaya (UNESA). Furthermore, it aimed to identify factors that
influenced zakat literacy. This research used descriptive approach through primary data collection from
questionnaire to understand the level of zakat literacy among Islamic Economics students and descriptive
quantitative approach to determine factors that influence zakat literacy level through regression analysis. The
participants of the research were 127 students. The result showed that the zakat literacy of Islamic Economics
student is on medium level. Furthermore, it showed that age and knowledge about zakat have significant
impact toward student zakat literacy level, while gender has no significant impact.
1 INTRODUCTION
Zakat is one of obligatory worship that has economic
impact in wealth distribution among people. It can
decrease economic gap within society, escalate
economic development as well as purchasing power
parity which could eradicate poverty (Canggih,
Fikriyah, Yasin, 2017; Syahrullah and Ulfah, 2016).
Zakat can be used as a solution to alleviate disparity
and poverty rate evenly through zakat management
by zakat institution in order to distribute it widely.
By its nature, zakat can be classified into two:
zakat fitrah and zakat maal. Zakat fitrah is a
compulsory payment that must be paid during
Ramadhan by each Muslim, whereas zakat maal is
obligatory for wealth acquired by Muslim. Abu Bakar
(2007) and Qardawi (1999) distinguish wealth
considered as zakat obligatory into traditional
perspective (agricultural, mineral resources, gold,
cash, revenue, and livestock) and modern perspective
(salary, income from asset, and marketable
securities).
Indonesia is a country with the biggest Muslim
population worldwide, around 87.5% (Kemenag,
2013). Hence, it is obvious that Indonesia zakat
potency is very big. PIRAC estimates that in 2004 the
amount of zakat potency in Indonesia reached IDR
6.132 trillion (Kurniawati, 2004). Firdaus, Beik,
Irawan, and Juanda (2012) explained that total
amount of Indonesia zakat potency, including
household salary, company revenue, and saving, is
IDR 217 trillion, equal to 3.4% Indonesia GDRP in
2010. Furthermore, Canggih, Fikriyah, Yasin (2017)
estimated the zakat potency, particularly zakat on
income, in Indonesia on 2015 around IDR 82 trillion.
However, there is wide gap between potency and
realization of zakat in Indonesia. The huge amount of
zakat potency is not within reach on zakat realization.
In 2011-2015, there were very wide gap between
potency and realization, particularly zakat on income,
the amount of zakat realization only reaches 1% of
total potency in the same period (Canggih, Fikriyah,
Yasin, 2017).
Khamis et all (2014) and Siswantoro and
Nurhayati (2012), mentioned that most of Muslim do
not really care, even neglect to pay, about zakat maal.
Somehow, it shows that almost half of Muslim in
Indonesia has less motivation to pay zakat (Mukhlis
and Beik, 2013). Furthermore, IMZ and PEBS
(2009), Infoz (2011), and Syahrullah and Ulfah
(2016) found that one of the factors that contributes
to gap of zakat potency and realization is the level of
understanding regarding zakat obligation is low. That
contrasts with the fact that Muslim population in
Indonesia is the majority. Besides, knowledge
religion, particularly about zakat, has been taught on
146
Canggih, C., Indrarini, R. and Prabowo, P.
Zakat Literacy among University Students and Factors Influenced It.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Economic Education and Entrepreneurship (ICEEE 2017), pages 146-150
ISBN: 978-989-758-308-7
Copyright © 2017 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

the early age of children, which should result in
sufficient knowledge about zakat.
Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia defined literacy as
quality or ability to understand letter including ability
to read and write (KBBI, 2016). However, literacy
particularly concern on individual ability to
understand and recognize ideas that visually
delivered. There are many researches about literacy,
either financial or media. Nidar and Bestari (2012)
defined personal financial literacy as a competency to
know, understand, and evaluate information about
personal finance.
However, there is no research about zakat literacy
so far. Thus, zakat literacy can be defined as
individual ability to know and understand about zakat
from its definition, type, and zakat management
institution. In simple way, zakat literacy can be
grouped into three groups, basic knowledge about
zakat, zakat calculation, and zakat payment method.
Zakat knowledge comprises of definition of zakat,
types of zakat, time of zakat payment, percentage of
zakat payment. Zakat calculation covers rules to
calculate several types of zakat. Zakat payment
method encompasses identification of zakat
institution (OPZ), payment method, OPZ program,
OPZ right and obligation.
Furthermore, there is no measurement regarding
zakat literacy level. However, there are several
classifications of financial literacy level from
literatures that can be used to classify zakat literacy
level. The Financial Services Authority (OJK)
(2013), classified financial literacy level, particularly
Indonesian, from Financial Literacy Survey 2013 into
four categories namely (1) well literate (21.84%), (2)
sufficient literate (75.69%), (3) less literate (2.06%),
(4) not literate (0.41%). The first category shows
sufficient knowledge and trust about financial
institution and financial services product, includes
features, benefit, risk, right and obligation about
financial product and services, as well as ability to use
financial product and services. The second category
shows sufficient knowledge and trust about financial
institution and financial services product, includes
features, benefit, risk, right and obligation about
financial product and services. The third category
shows knowledge about financial institution and
financial services product. The fourth category shows
no knowledge and trust about financial institution and
financial services product, as well as no ability to
utilize financial services product.
Danes and Hira (1987) and Volpe, Chen, and
Pavlicko (1996) classified financial literacy level into
three category namely (1) more than 80%, (2) 60% to
79%, and (3) below 60%. The first category
represents a relatively high level of financial
knowledge. The second category represents a
medium level of financial knowledge. The third
category represents a relatively low level of financial
knowledge. This classification is formed from the
percentage of respondent correct answer from series
of question about financial literacy.
Several studies about financial literacy among
young people and students show that students lack
knowledge about finance (Chen and Volpe, 1998),
financial literacy level of students are considerably
low (Beal and Delpachitra, 2003), young people has
low financial literacy (Lusardi, Mitchell, and Curto,
2010), comes within the low category, and therefore
needs to be improved (Nidar and Bestari, 2012),
Factors that influence financial literacy can be
categorized as demographic/personal (Chen and
Volpe 1998; Worthington 2006; Beal and Delpachitra
2003), social and economic characteristics
(Worthington, 2006), financial experience (Peng,
Bartholomae, Fox, and Cravener, 2007), level of
education (Lusardi, Mitchell, and Curto, 2010; Nidar
and Bestari, 2012; Sarigul, 2014), economic
condition (Worthington, 2006), and family
characteristics (Lusardi, Mitchell, and Curto, 2010).
The factors that are analyzed are demographic
characteristics, and level of education.
The elements categorized as demographic
characteristics are gender (Beal and Delpachitra,
2003; Chen & Volpe, 1998; Worthington, 2006;
Lusardi, Mitchell, and Curto, 2010), age
(Worthington, 2006; Nidar and Bestari, 2012), and
class rank or level of education in university (Nidar
and Bestari, 2012; Sarigul, 2014).
So far, researches about zakat are talking about
factors that affected obedience of zakat payer, zakat
management by zakat institution (UPZ), and intention
of muzakki to pay zakat. There is no research about
zakat literacy to identify the level of zakat knowledge
and understanding of people, particularly zakat payer.
Hence, this paper aims to measure the level of zakat
literacy of people, especially student of Islamic
Economic Program Universitas Negeri Surabaya.
Furthermore, this paper wants to probe about factors
that influenced literacy level such as gender, age, and
knowledge about zakat (class rank in university).
2 METHODS
This research used descriptive quantitative approach,
to understand the zakat literacy level among Islamic
Economics student as well as to determine the factors
that influenced zakat literacy level. The survey was
Zakat Literacy among University Students and Factors Influenced It
147

located at Faculty of Economics, Universitas Negeri
Surabaya, in the Islamic Economic Studies Program.
The population of this study was class of 2014, 2015,
and 2015. Data was taking through questionnaire.
Number of sample were 127 respondents, consist
of 48 male and 79 female. In terms of age, there were
1 respondent of 17 years old, 19 respondents of 18
years old, 47 respondents of 19 years old, 40
respondents of 20 years old, 19 respondents of 21
years old and 1 respondent of 22 years old. As for
knowledge variable, 31 respondents have taken the
course of Zakat Management, while 96 respondents
have not taken the course of Zakat Management.
Level of zakat literacy was defined from
descriptive approach, from data tabulation. As to
understand the factors that influenced zakat literacy
level, descriptive quantitative approach was used. It
used dummy variable regression, to find the factors
that possibly have influence to zakat literacy. The
model is used to accommodate the existence of
qualitative variables. The independent variables
consist of gender, knowledge, and age. Gender
variable consisting of male and female, the variable
of knowledge consist of have taken zakat
management course and have not taken zakat
management course, and age variable. While the
dependent variable, the financial literacy variable,
was derived from the score of the correct answer from
the questionnaire distributed.
Here is the regression model with the dummy
variable used in this study:
𝑌
𝑖
= 𝛽
0
+ 𝛽
1
𝐷
1
+ 𝛽
2
𝐷
2
+ 𝛽
3
𝑋
𝑖
(1)
Where: Y
i
= Zakat Literacy Level
X
i
= Age
D
1
= 1 if Male
= 0 if Female
D
2
= 1 if have taken Zakat Management
Course
= 0 if have not taken Zakat Management
Course
Hypothesis to be answered in this research is there
is an effect of independent variable to its dependent
variable.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
From data tabulation of primary data collection
through questionnaire that has been collected, it was
grouped in accordance to Danes and Hira (1987) and
Volpe, Chen, and Pavlicko (1996) criteria regarding
literacy level. Hence, the zakat literacy level of
Islamic Economics students of UNESA can be
described on table 1.
Table 1: Zakat Literacy Level of Islamic Economics
Student
Variable
Number
and
Percentage
Zakat Literacy Level
Low
Level
Medium
Level
High
Level
Gender
Male
Number
22
16
10
Percentage
17%
13%
8%
Female
Number
24
47
8
Percentage
19%
37%
6%
Age
17
Number
0
1
0
Percentage
0%
1%
0%
18
Number
4
11
4
Percentage
3%
9%
3%
19
Number
20
21
6
Percentage
16%
17%
5%
20
Number
17
18
5
Percentage
13%
14%
4%
21
Number
5
11
3
Percentage
4%
9%
2%
22
Number
0
1
0
Percentage
0%
1%
0%
Knowledge
Have Taken
Number
6
18
7
Zakat
Subject
Percentage
5%
14%
6%
Have not
Taken
Number
40
45
11
Zakat
Subject
Percentage
31%
35%
9%
Overall
Number
46
66
15
Percentage
36%
52%
12%
From table 1, it can be seen that zakat literacy of
Islamic Economics students can be classified into
three levels namely low level, medium level, and high
level. Overall the zakat literacy level of Islamic
Economics student is on medium level (52%). Only
12% of the student has high level of zakat literacy.
However, 36% of the student has low level of zakat
literacy.
It shows that most of the Islamic Economics
students already have sufficient knowledge regarding
zakat. Nevertheless, some of the students need more
assistance to enhance their zakat literacy level
through enrollment on zakat subject.
Regression result of the factors that influence
zakat literacy level can be seen on Figure 1.
ICEEE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Economic Education and Entrepreneurship
148

Figure 1: Regression result of zakat literacy
influenced factor
From figure 1 it can be seen that gender variable
are not significant as explainers in the model. Gender
variable has no significant impact towards student’s
zakat literacy level. Meanwhile, age and knowledge
variables are significant as explainers in the model at
the 5% level and the 1% level. Both variables have
significant impact towards student’s zakat literacy.
However, age and knowledge variable have
different impact based on the coefficient generated.
Age negatively affect zakat literacy level, the older
the age, the lower the zakat literacy level. On the
contrary, knowledge has positive effect to zakat
literacy level. The higher the class levels of the
student, the higher the zakat literacy level.
This result provides that both age and knowledge
have significant impat on zakat literacy. It is
corresponds with Lusardi, Mitchell, and Curto
(2010), Nidar and Bestari (2012), and Sarigȕl (2014),
that socio-demographic, level of education, and
student characteristics have significant impact on
financial literacy.
4 CONCLUSIONS
From the data processing, it is found that the level of
zakat literacy among Islamic Economics student
comes within moderate level. The gender variable
cannot be used as the measurement parameter. Age
and knowledge variables can be used to explain the
existing model. Age negatively affects zakat literacy
level, and knowledge positively affects zakat literacy
level. The impact of age variable toward zakat
literacy level can be described that the increase of age
of 1 unit can reduce the value of zakat literacy of
3.5939 units. While the magnitude of the effect of
knowledge variables on the value of zakat literacy can
be illustrated that by taking the course of Zakat
Management can increase the zakat literacy level.
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