What were or are Americans’ main financial challenges since 2020?
Many people in a survey cited inflation as the reason for financial difficulties than any other cause. Inflation reached a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022 and has yet to return to the Fed’s target of 2%. And as we all know, we were in amidst of a pandemic to which many economic entities took advantage of an opportunity to increase their financial well-being. Rent taking . . .
After inflation, Americans pointed to the costs of basic living expenses and housing as their top financial challenges.
Much of the issue was the result of pandemic funds being spread across a US population.
How are Americans doing financially? | USAFacts
Does education impact financial security?
Adults with higher levels of education were more likely to feel financially secure. In 2023, 87% of respondents with a bachelor’s degree or more reported doing at least okay, compared to 67% of people with some college or a technical or associate’s degree and 63% of people with only high school diplomas or GED.
The lowest rate of reported financial security was among people who did not finish high school or an equivalent: less than half reported doing okay financially.
All four cohorts reported a worsening financial picture from 2021 to 2023. Those without a high school diploma dropped just one percentage point and the other groups fell at least four points.
Do some racial groups feel better off financially than others?
Over the 11 years of available data, Asian adults have consistently reported the highest rate of financial security, followed by white adults. Black and Hispanic adults reported the lowest rates of doing comfortably or okay.
In 2023, though, Black Americans were the only racial group that reported doing better than in the year prior, going from 64% to 68%.
Do parents feel they’re doing okay financially?
The financial picture is more difficult for parents living with children at home, and the gap between adults with and without children has widened: In 2023, 64% of parents reported doing at least okay, compared to 75% of all other adults.
That 11-point gap was matched only one other time over the last nine years of data, in 2020.
Parents living with their children under age 18 (“parents”) are one group that has seen sizeable swings in well-being in recent years, falling sharply after the onset of the pandemic, rebounding in 2021, and falling sharply again since then. The share of parents doing at least okay financially fell to 64 percent in 2023, down 5 percentage points from the prior year and down 11 percentage points from 2021 (figure 4).
How are Americans doing financially? | USAFacts (main text).
