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Roughly half of Americans fall short of the annual income needed to cover their basic needs, according to new research.
A U.S. family with children needs about $145,000 in income to be considered economically secure, according to a March 16 report from the Urban Institute. About 49% of Americans live below that financial threshold, the nonpartisan think tank found.
In 2024 (the latest available data), the median household income for married couples in the U.S. was $128,700, U.S. Census data shows.
Ingredients for economic security
According to Urban’s analysis, economic security today includes having enough money to pay for:
- Adequate food
- Clothing
- Housing
- Health care
- Child care
- Transportation
- Postsecondary education
- Student loan repayments
- Savings for emergencies and retirement
- Additional costs, such as for personal care products
The research comes as many Americans continue to feel the pinch of rising prices, with even some six-figure households saying they are struggling to pay for basics like utilities and health care.
To be sure, costs can vary widely from person to person. For instance, households with employer-based health insurance typically pay about 25% of coverage costs, with employers covering the rest. But some Americans — such as those buying plans through the Affordable Care Act — may not get a break, especially after enhanced premium tax credits expired in January.
Riding the “hamster wheel”
While Urban’s measure differs from the poverty rate, which measures extreme hardship, it signals that even people with good-paying jobs may still not be earning enough to feel as if they are thriving.
“That is consistent with the experiences that we’re hearing from people — that they might not be destitute, but some of them are skipping bills — and some of them are making their bills on a regular basis, but they’re not getting ahead,” economist Gregory Acs, vice president of Urban’s tax and income supports division and a co-author of the report, told CBS News.
He added, “They feel like they’re on the hamster wheel economy.”
Earning above the $145,000 annual income threshold allows people to get ahead and feel financially secure, the analysis said.
“If you have more people feeling that their efforts are rewarded, that they have a stronger sense of autonomy, they are able to devote more time to their own communities, to their own families,” Acs said. “Parents can invest more in their kids — time, energy, money.”
The real poverty line?
The analysis echoes a viral Substack post from 2025 by Wall Street strategist Michael Green that posited that the actual poverty line in the U.S. — or how much you have to earn to afford necessities like food and shelter — is in reality much higher than the government’s official number, which stands at $33,000 for a family of four.
By Green’s calculation, Americans who earn less than $140,000 should be considered poor because their income isn’t sufficient to pay for basics like housing, childcare and food — similar to the measures the Urban Institute used in its analysis.
“He called it a poverty rate — I think it actually was more of an economic security rate,” Acs said, referring to Green’s post. “His intuition, in his back-of-the-envelope calculation, is broadly consistent with the way we added things up.”
The same share of Americans likely remains below the economic security threshold in 2026, Acs noted, given that wages and inflation have been rising relatively in tandem in the last several years. Still, some households may be facing more acute financial stress this year, such as those who lost enhanced premium health credits for the Affordable Care Act plans when they expired in January.
Who struggles most
The share of people who live below Urban’s economic security threshold varies by race, age and family composition, the analysis found. Single-parent households have among the lowest rates of economic security, with about 90% below the research firm’s proposed threshold.
About 8 in 10 U.S. renters fall below the economic security line, roughly double the rate of homeowners, the research found, which also noted that about 45% of families with one member over the age of 65 lack economic security.
Under-65 households without children need about $95,900 in annual earnings to meet basic needs, less than families with kids, largely because they don’t face child care costs, according to Urban.
Families with at least one adult over 65 require $108,500 for economic security. While they don’t require childcare, older households tend to have higher healthcare costs, the analysis found.
There are also differences between families who live in cities versus in suburban or rural areas, the study found. For instance, households with children who live in cities require about $149,000 to meet their costs, while those outside of metropolitan areas require $129,500, the analysis found.
