Latest rate
6.0% 2025
Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate
6% in 2025, compared with 5% in 2024
Highest in data back to 2021.
Where the Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate stands now
The Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate was 6.0% in 2025, the highest in data back to 2021. It has been higher than the year before for four straight years.
What it means for households: 401(k) Hardship Withdrawal Statistics Behind on Your Mortgage?
How the Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate has moved since 2019
Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate: up since 2020, the highest in data back to 2021
Percentage of eligible Vanguard participants taking hardship withdrawals: 6.0% in 2025, up from 5.0% a year earlier. Annual, 2019–2025.
What the Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate measures
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.
A higher rate is worse for households.
Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate by year, 2019 to 2025
Every year since 2019, newest first. The change compares each year with the same year a year earlier.
The source changed how it measures this in 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. Figures on either side are not directly comparable, so the change column stays blank where a comparison would cross that date. Source documentation.
| Year | Rate (%) | Change from a year earlier (percentage points) |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6.0 | +1.0 |
| 2024 | 5.0 | +1.0 |
| 2023 | 4.0 | +1.0 |
| 2022 | 3.0 | +1.0 |
| 2021 | 2.0 | — |
| 2020 | 2.0 | — |
| 2019 | 2.3 | — |
Annual · Vanguard How America Saves 2026
Counties with the highest safety net and buffer scores
There's no county figure for this measure, so this list uses the safety net and buffer part of our County Distress Index.
| Rank | County | Score (0–100) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Choctaw County, OK | 94.8 |
| 2 | Stewart County, GA | 94.2 |
| 3 | Noxubee County, MS | 94.2 |
| 4 | Hudspeth County, TX | 94 |
| 5 | Brooks County, TX | 94 |
| 6 | Lake County, TN | 94 |
| 7 | Duval County, TX | 93.9 |
| 8 | Ripley County, MO | 93.5 |
| 9 | Dunklin County, MO | 93.3 |
| 10 | Quitman County, GA | 93.2 |
Questions about the Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate
What is the current 401(k) hardship withdrawal rate?
6% of participants in Vanguard-administered plans that offer hardship withdrawals took at least one in 2025, according to Vanguard's How America Saves. That is up from 5% in 2024. It covers Vanguard's client plans, not every 401(k) plan.
What drives hardship withdrawal rates?
Vanguard says plan design, more efficient administrative options and regulatory changes, not only household strain, have led to higher rates, and that inflation and higher interest rates may contribute. It also finds much higher use in plans that let participants self-certify a hardship than in plans that require documents. The series alone does not identify one cause. The IRS hardship-distribution FAQs explain that the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 and final hardship regulations changed the federal access rules; the series does not show that either caused the change.
What are the taxes and penalties on a 401(k) hardship withdrawal?
Previously untaxed hardship withdrawals are generally included in income. An additional 10% tax may apply before age 59½ unless an exception applies, and the net amount depends on the participant's circumstances. Unlike a plan loan, a hardship withdrawal cannot be paid back into the account.
Where does the hardship withdrawal data come from?
Vanguard's annual How America Saves report tabulates Vanguard's own recordkeeping data for more than 1,300 plans and nearly 5 million participants. It is not a survey, and it covers Vanguard's clients only. Each edition reports the previous calendar year.
Sources and method for the Vanguard Hardship Withdrawal Rate
- 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. We use the annual figures as published, from 2019 through 2025, with no adjustment of our own. Vanguard’s report (1) Vanguard’s report (2) Vanguard’s report (3) Vanguard’s report (4)
We write with assistance from AI tools. Figures come from the data and sources named on this page.