--- title: "Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate" slug: the-cannibalization-rate summary: "6% of eligible Vanguard participants took a hardship withdrawal in 2025" category: "Savings" unit: percent frequency: annual direction: higher_is_worse latest_value: 6.0 latest_period: "2025" trend: rising last_updated: "2026-09-24T00:00:00Z" source: "Vanguard How America Saves 2026" measurement_basis: "Share of participants eligible for a hardship withdrawal who took at least one during the year, in Vanguard-recordkept defined contribution plans, from Vanguard's How America Saves. It counts participants who took a withdrawal rather than the number of withdrawals, and covers the plans Vanguard administers rather than all U.S. retirement savers." source_url: https://workplace.vanguard.com/insights-and-research/report/how-america-saves-2026.html source_urls: - https://institutional.vanguard.com/content/dam/inst/iig-transformation/insights/pdf/2024/has/how_america_saves_report_2024.pdf - https://institutional.vanguard.com/content/dam/inst/iig-transformation/insights/pdf/2025/has/2025_How_America_Saves.pdf - https://institutional.vanguard.com/content/dam/inst/iig-transformation/has/2026/pdf/HowAmericaSaves2026_accessibility.pdf canonical_html: https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-cannibalization-rate/ citation_apa: "Kilburn, R. (2026). Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate [Data set]. American Default Research. https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-cannibalization-rate/" citation_chicago: "Kilburn, Ross. 2026. \"Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate.\" American Default Research. https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-cannibalization-rate/." citation_mla: "Kilburn, Ross. \"Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate.\" American Default Research, 2026, americandefault.org/indicators/the-cannibalization-rate/." --- # Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate Also tracked as The Cannibalization Rate. > 6% of eligible Vanguard participants took a hardship withdrawal in 2025 ## Current Reading As of 2025, Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate is **6%** (rising — worsening for households). of Vanguard participants with the option ## What Changed - 6% of participants in Vanguard-administered plans that offer hardship withdrawals took at least one in 2025. That is up from 5% in 2024; Vanguard says plan design, easier administration and rule changes, not only household strain, have led to higher rates. - The highest yearly rate from 2021 on, the years measured under the same rules. ## Recent Values | Period | Value | |--------|-------| | 2025 | 6% | | 2024 | 5% | | 2023 | 4% | | 2022 | 3% | | 2021 | 2% | | 2020 | 2% | | 2019 | 2.3% | ## Historical Context This series is not comparable end to end, so no all-time extreme or long-run average is published for it. The source changed what it measures on the following date(s): - 2020: Federal hardship-withdrawal rules that dropped the loan-first requirement and the six-month contribution suspension became mandatory for distributions from January 1, 2020, and Vanguard reports that more of its plans offered hardship withdrawals that year, so earlier years were measured under different rules and a different group of plans. Source: https://www.vanguardmexico.com/content/dam/intl/americas/documents/mexico/en/how-america-saves.pdf Compare readings only within a single segment. Subtracting across one of these dates measures the change in method, not in household conditions. ## Methodology This indicator carries annual observations and is interpreted as higher values indicate worse household conditions. Source: Vanguard How America Saves 2026. Measurement basis: Share of participants eligible for a hardship withdrawal who took at least one during the year, in Vanguard-recordkept defined contribution plans, from Vanguard's How America Saves. It counts participants who took a withdrawal rather than the number of withdrawals, and covers the plans Vanguard administers rather than all U.S. retirement savers. Automation: parsed from the source's published reports via the Anthropic Claude API. ## Source Vanguard How America Saves 2026 - [https://institutional.vanguard.com/content/dam/inst/iig-transformation/insights/pdf/2024/has/how_america_saves_report_2024.pdf](https://institutional.vanguard.com/content/dam/inst/iig-transformation/insights/pdf/2024/has/how_america_saves_report_2024.pdf) - [https://institutional.vanguard.com/content/dam/inst/iig-transformation/insights/pdf/2025/has/2025_How_America_Saves.pdf](https://institutional.vanguard.com/content/dam/inst/iig-transformation/insights/pdf/2025/has/2025_How_America_Saves.pdf) - [https://institutional.vanguard.com/content/dam/inst/iig-transformation/has/2026/pdf/HowAmericaSaves2026_accessibility.pdf](https://institutional.vanguard.com/content/dam/inst/iig-transformation/has/2026/pdf/HowAmericaSaves2026_accessibility.pdf) Data retrieved: 2026-09-24T00:00:00Z ## Related Indicators - [the-buffer](https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-buffer/) - [the-safety-net](https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-safety-net/) ## Machine-Readable Endpoints - HTML page: https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-cannibalization-rate/ - JSON: https://americandefault.org/api/indicators/the-cannibalization-rate.json - CSV: https://americandefault.org/api/downloads/the-cannibalization-rate.csv - BibTeX: https://americandefault.org/citations/the-cannibalization-rate.bib - RIS: https://americandefault.org/citations/the-cannibalization-rate.ris ## Citation **APA 7th** Kilburn, R. (2026). Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate [Data set]. American Default Research. https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-cannibalization-rate/ **Chicago (author-date)** Kilburn, Ross. 2026. "Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate." American Default Research. https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-cannibalization-rate/. **MLA 9th** Kilburn, Ross. "Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate." American Default Research, 2026, americandefault.org/indicators/the-cannibalization-rate/. Use **American Default Research** as the institutional name in source lists, bibliographies, and press citations. **American Default** is the brand and URL form. **American Distress Index (ADI)** is the product name for the national composite score.