What the Averages Hide About Household Finances (2026)
22.8% of adults reported difficulty paying usual household expenses in 2026-03-30, according to the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey. 17.4% skipped at least one bill payment (2026-Q2, Philadelphia Fed LIFE Survey), and only 30.0% are classified as financially healthy (2024, Financial Health Network). Seven vulnerability measures from Census, Philly Fed, FHN, USDA, HUD, FDIC, and CMS.
How Many Americans Are Struggling Financially?
22.8% of U.S. adults reported difficulty paying usual household expenses as of 2026-03-30, according to the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey. Independently, the Philadelphia Fed's LIFE Survey shows 17.4% skipping at least one bill payment (2026-Q2, Philadelphia Fed), and the Financial Health Network classifies just 30.0% as financially healthy (2024, Financial Health Network) — meaning the remaining 70% are either coping with fragility or actively vulnerable.
Here is what makes this page different from most of the data on this site. These are not the same survey measuring the same thing. They are six different organizations — federal agencies, a regional Federal Reserve bank, and private research groups — arriving at converging conclusions through completely independent methodologies. Any one of these numbers could be dismissed as noisy survey data. All of them pointing in the same direction is harder to explain away. The downstream consequences are visible in collapsing savings rates, record 401(k) hardship withdrawals, and the data below. The American Distress Index distills household distress into a single composite score, currently reading 43.8 (Typical). On average, its inputs sit higher than in 44% of their own quarterly histories.
Key Statistics at a Glance
The American Distress Index currently reads 43.8 (Typical). On average, its inputs sit higher than in 44% of their own quarterly histories. The seven indicators on this page sit downstream of the ADI's five domains. When savings collapse (the Safety Net & Buffer domain), households start skipping bills and drawing down emergency reserves. When debt payments take a bigger bite of each paycheck (the Debt Burden domain), food insecurity rises and Medicaid demand grows. These vulnerability surveys confirm the ADI signal through independent data — they are the lived experience behind the composite score. For the upstream buffer metrics that precede these outcomes, see the financial hardship statistics roundup. The K-shaped distress pattern means these aggregate numbers understate conditions for lower-income households, where difficulty rates run 15–20 points higher.
How Many Americans Struggle to Pay Monthly Bills?
Census asks adults a direct question: how difficult has it been for your household to pay for usual household expenses? The share answering "somewhat difficult" or "very difficult" is the number below. The question's recall window changed in March 2026, from the last seven days to the last two months, and the survey moved back to a cross-sectional sample at the same time. Readings on either side of that date are not directly comparable.
The reading is 22.8% in 2026-03-30. On the earlier survey, which ran through September 2024, the share held between 35.7% and 41.2% across 2023 and 2024 while unemployment stayed low and inflation moderated. That stretch is what the rest of this page connects to: structural cost pressure in housing, healthcare, and grocery costs that has not reversed even as the rate of increase slowed. Cumulative inflation, not current inflation, drives the difficulty. Prices went up and then stopped going up fast. They did not come back down. That is the gap between the headline and the felt experience.
Share of Adults Reporting Difficulty Paying Usual Expenses
Source: Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey (biweekly, August 2020–present).
Full data and trend: The Pinch (difficulty paying expenses)
How Many Households Are Skipping Bills to Get By?
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's LIFE (Labor, Income, Finances, and Expectations) Survey, launched in Q1 2023, tracks credit-related hardship behaviors: skipping minimum credit card payments, overdrawing checking accounts, using payday loans, and taking hardship withdrawals from retirement accounts. The composite skip rate captures the share of adults engaging in at least one of these behaviors.
The rate started at 15.9% in Q1 2023 and currently reads 17.4% as of 2026-Q2. This is a newer series with a shorter history, but its value lies in the distinction from the Pulse Survey. The Pulse Survey asks how people feel about paying bills. The LIFE Survey asks whether they actually skipped payments. Sentiment versus behavior. Both converge: 22.8% of adults reported difficulty paying expenses (2026-03-30, Census Pulse) and 17.4% skipped at least one payment (2026-Q2, Philadelphia Fed). When the bank data agrees — credit card delinquency rates confirm the same trajectory — you are looking at three independent data sources all measuring the same underlying phenomenon. The debate at that point turns to why it is happening. Whether it is happening has already been settled by the data.
Share of Adults Skipping Bill Payments (Quarterly)
Source: Philadelphia Federal Reserve LIFE Survey (quarterly, Q1 2023–present).
Full data and trend: The Skip Rate (bill-skipping rate)
How Financially Healthy Is the Average American?
The Financial Health Network's annual survey classifies Americans into three tiers using an 8-question assessment that covers spending, saving, borrowing, and planning. The "financially healthy" share — those with positive cash flow, adequate savings, manageable debt, and appropriate insurance — peaked at 34.0% in 2021 and has since declined to 30.0%.
The remaining 70% are split between "coping" (meeting basic obligations but vulnerable to a single shock) and "financially vulnerable" (already struggling). That middle category — "coping" — is where I think the most important story is. These are households that look fine on a credit application but are one car repair, one medical bill, or one job loss away from crossing into crisis. The binary "above/below poverty line" measure cannot see them. This three-tier framework can. The FHN data corroborates the Federal Reserve's $400 test — which has similarly plateaued despite low unemployment — and the savings rate collapse that indicates the buffer between "coping" and "vulnerable" is thinning. The categories are fixed. The people are moving between them.
Share of Americans Classified as 'Financially Healthy' (Annual)
Source: Financial Health Network Annual FinHealth Survey (8-question assessment).
Full data: Financial Health Score
How Many Americans Don't Have Enough to Eat?
USDA's Economic Research Service reports that 13.7% of U.S. households were food insecure in 2024 — not statistically different from the two years before it, and higher than every year from 2016 through 2021. The rate held flat during 2020–2021 as pandemic-era SNAP expansions and emergency food aid offset the economic shock. When those programs expired, the underlying demand became visible: the rate climbed from its 2021 low of 10.2% and has stayed there.
Food insecurity is both a symptom and an accelerant of financial distress. Households that cannot afford food divert spending from other obligations — mortgage payments, credit card minimums, medical care — creating cascading defaults. The 25% jump from 2021 to 2022 follows the expiration of the enhanced Child Tax Credit at the end of 2021. The emergency SNAP allotments, which had served the same buffering role, did not end nationally until March 2023. Cumulative grocery price increases of 32%+ since 2020 mean that even restored SNAP benefit levels buy substantially less food than they did pre-pandemic.
U.S. Food Insecurity Rate (Annual)
Source: USDA Economic Research Service, Household Food Security in the United States (annual). 2024 is the final year: USDA terminated the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement in September 2025.
Full data: Household Food Insecurity Rate
How Bad Is the Homelessness Crisis?
HUD's 2024 Point-in-Time count recorded 771,480 people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2024 — the highest figure since HUD began the annual count. That is a 18% increase from the prior year and 33% above the pre-pandemic 2020 count.
The surge reflects the convergence of multiple distress channels the ADI tracks. Rising housing costs push vulnerable households out. The expiration of federal eviction moratoriums removed a temporary floor. Climbing foreclosure filings displace homeowners who lack the savings buffer to secure alternative housing. The PIT count is a lagging indicator — by the time someone appears in the count, every upstream buffer has already failed. It is the end of the cascade that begins with the savings rate.
Annual Point-in-Time Homelessness Count (HUD)
Source: HUD Annual Homeless Assessment Report, Point-in-Time Count (January, annual).
Full data: Annual Homelessness Assessment (PIT Count)
How Many People Are Losing Health Coverage?
Medicaid and CHIP enrollment stood at 76.8M as of 2025-09, down from a pandemic peak of approximately 94.0M but still 8% above the pre-pandemic baseline of 71.4M. The "unwinding" — states resuming eligibility redeterminations after three years of continuous enrollment — has removed more than 15 million people from the rolls since April 2023.
Many of those disenrolled lost coverage for procedural reasons (missed paperwork, address changes) rather than ineligibility, creating a coverage gap where households are technically qualified but functionally uninsured. The gap matters for financial distress because uninsured medical events are a leading driver of bankruptcy filings and medical debt accumulation. A bright spot: the FDIC's 2023 survey found the unbanked household rate fell to a record-low 4.2%, down from 8.2% in 2011 — meaning more households have access to the basic financial infrastructure needed to receive direct deposits, benefits, and build credit.
Medicaid / CHIP Enrollment (Millions)
Source: CMS Medicaid & CHIP Monthly Enrollment data.
Full data: Medicaid / CHIP Enrollment
The Convergence Pattern
Low savings, missed payments, food-security strain, and insurance lapses are distinct household-pressure signals. The ADI tracks Safety Net & Buffer alongside debt-performance inputs without assigning a fixed sequence or causal path among them.
The convergence of independent surveys pointing in the same direction is the strongest form of evidence. The Census Bureau, the Philadelphia Fed, the Financial Health Network, USDA, and HUD are not coordinating. They are measuring different facets of the same reality. When all seven metrics worsen simultaneously, the signal is structural, not statistical noise.
Read more: "The Two-Economy Problem" — why aggregate statistics hide the split →Data Sources and Methodology
Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey
Experimental survey measuring household well-being during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Biweekly collection, published within 2 weeks. Covers difficulty paying expenses, food sufficiency, housing security, and mental health. Representative national sample. Census Household Pulse data.
Philadelphia Fed LIFE Survey
Quarterly survey of credit-related hardship behaviors including bill-skipping, overdrafts, payday loan usage, and hardship withdrawals. Launched Q1 2023. Measures behavior rather than sentiment, providing a complement to the Census Pulse attitudinal questions. Philadelphia Fed LIFE Survey data.
Financial Health Network
Annual FinHealth survey using an 8-question assessment across spending, saving, borrowing, and planning dimensions. Classifies respondents as healthy, coping, or vulnerable. Nationally representative, fielded annually since 2018. FHN Pulse survey.
USDA, HUD, CMS, FDIC
Food insecurity from USDA's Economic Research Service (annual; series ended with 2024). Homelessness from HUD's Annual Homeless Assessment Report (January PIT count). Medicaid enrollment from CMS monthly data. Unbanked rate from FDIC's biennial National Survey.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Americans report difficulty paying household expenses?
22.8% of adults reported "somewhat difficult" or "very difficult" to pay for usual household expenses in the Census Bureau's Household Trends and Outlook Pulse Survey, which now carries the Household Pulse questions (2026-03-30). That question asks about the last two months; Census widened it from a seven-day window in March 2026 and changed the sample design, so the reading is not comparable with earlier years. On the survey that ran through September 2024 the share sat between 35.7% and 41.2% across 2023 and 2024, reflecting the cumulative effect of rising essential costs even as headline inflation moderated.
What percentage of Americans skip bill payments?
17.4% of adults reported skipping at least one bill payment, according to the Philadelphia Fed's LIFE Survey (2026-Q2). The survey, launched in Q1 2023 at 15.9%, tracks credit-related hardship behaviors including skipping minimum payments, overdrawing accounts, and using payday loans. The skip rate peaked at 19.7% and currently sits at 17.4%.
What does 'financially healthy' mean?
The Financial Health Network's annual FinHealth survey classifies adults into three tiers based on an 8-question assessment covering spending, saving, borrowing, and planning. In 2024, 30.0% scored as "financially healthy" — meaning they are spending less than income, have adequate savings, manageable debt, and appropriate insurance. Another ~43% scored as "coping" (managing but vulnerable to shocks), and ~27% as "financially vulnerable." The healthy share peaked at 34.0% in 2021.
Is homelessness increasing in the United States?
Yes. The 2024 HUD Point-in-Time count recorded 771,480 people experiencing homelessness — an all-time record and a 18% increase from the prior year. The count is 33% above the pre-pandemic 2020 figure. Rising shelter costs, the end of pandemic-era eviction protections, and the uptick in foreclosures have all contributed to the surge.
How many Americans lost Medicaid coverage in the unwinding?
More than 15 million people were disenrolled from Medicaid after the federal continuous enrollment requirement ended in April 2023. Enrollment peaked at approximately 94.0M during the pandemic, when states were prohibited from removing anyone from the rolls. As of 2025-09, enrollment stands at 76.8M — still 8% above the pre-pandemic baseline of 71.4M, but the unwinding has left millions without coverage.
How does household financial health connect to the American Distress Index?
The American Distress Index currently reads 43.8 (Typical). On average, its inputs sit higher than in 44% of their own quarterly histories. The seven indicators on this page are classified as "supporting evidence" — they are downstream consequences of the distress the ADI's five domains measure. When savings collapse and debt service climbs — the ADI's Safety Net & Buffer and Debt Burden domains — the effects ripple into bill-paying difficulty, food insecurity, and coverage gaps. These vulnerability metrics confirm the ADI signal through independent survey data from six different federal and private sources.