New research shows that nearly half of Americans fall short of the annual income they need to cover basic needs such as housing, food, healthcare and other necessities.
The research from the Urban Institute shows that a U.S. family with children needs roughly $145,000 in income to be considered economically secure. Roughly 49% of Americans live below that financial threshold, the nonpartisan think tank said.
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.
According to Urban’s analysis, economic security today includes having enough money to pay for:
- Adequate food
- Clothing
- Housing
- Healthcare
- Child care
- Transportation
- Postsecondary education
- Student loan repayments
- Savings for emergencies and retirement
- Additional costs, such as for personal care products
The institute’s research comes as many Americans feel the strain of rising prices, with even some six-figure households saying they are struggling to pay for basics such as utilities and healthcare.
Urban Institute’s measure differs from the poverty rate, which measures extreme hardship, but it reveals that even people with good-paying jobs still may not be earning enough to feel as if they are thriving.
Hamster Wheel Economy
“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 the institute’s tax and income supports division and a co-author of the report, told CBS News. “They feel like they’re on the hamster wheel economy.”
According to the analysis, earning more than the $145,000 annual income threshold allows people to get ahead and feel financially secure.
“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.”
CBS reported that the analysis supports a viral Substack post from 2025 by Wall Street Strategist Michael Green who said that the actual poverty line in the U.S. 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 is not enough to pay for basics such as housing, childcare and food, which is similar to the measures the Urban Institute used in its analysis.
Acute Financial Stress
“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.
The share of American’s living below Urban Institute’s economic security threshold varies by race, age and family composition, the analysis found.
Single-parent households, it said, have among the lowest rates of economic security, with about 90% below the institute’s proposed threshold.
Roughly 8 in 10 U.S. renters are below the economic security line, about double the rate of homeowners, the research found. It also noted that about 45% of families with one member over the age of 65 lack economic security.
Under-65 households without children need roughly $95,900 in annual earnings to meet basic needs, less than families with kids, largely because they don’t face child care costs, Urban Institute noted.
Meanwhile, families with at least one adult over 65 require $108,500 for economic security, the institute said.
