The overall financial well-being of U.S. families fell in 2023, with 43 percent of households having difficulty paying monthly bills.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Research’s report “Making Ends Meet in 2024” showed that many American families indicated experiencing a deterioration of their financial well-being in the between the start of 2023 and the end of the year. The report used findings from surveys of 3,113 consumers completed in January 2023 and follow-up surveys a year later returned by 1,373 of the original respondents.
The report found the financial well-being decline was prevalent across demographic groups.
“The pandemic-induced improvement in financial health reversed in 2022 and continued to slide in 2023 and 2024,” the report noted. “These changes place overall financial health around where it was in 2019 after the sharp improvement in financial health that started in 2020. While we do not attribute the deterioration to any one specific cause, high inflation generally and housing costs in particular, high interest rates and the decline in mortgage refinance, and the student loan payment resumption may all have contributed.”
The percentage of families stating they experienced difficulty in paying their bills increased from 38 percent at the start of 2023 to 43 percent in January 2024. The overall financial well-being from 51 percent to 48.7 percent. The percentage of consumers with low financial well-being increased to 22 percent from 16 percent.
Only 42 percent of households indicated they could cover their expenses for a month if they lost their main source of income. The percentage of families having difficulty paying their bills three to four times per year was 39.3 percent.
When experiencing difficulty paying bills, 53.2 percent claimed they would struggle to pay for a vehicle repair. That was on par with difficulty paying rent or mortgage.
Find the complete report here.
