According to a 2023 Federal Reserve survey, 52 percent of US residents report that, at best, they’re just making ends meet and did not save any income in the previous month. Only 33 percent report they live comfortably. Yet conventional measures of economic insecurity, like the poverty rate, capture only acute need and don’t show the hardships of millions of people who struggle to pay bills and save for the future—people who are economically insecure and not poised to thrive.
To better understand families’ circumstances, their resources, and the costs of fully participating in today’s society and economy, the Urban Institute developed a “true cost of economic security” measure. They designed the measure with accuracy and replicability in mind, using high-quality publicly accessible data collected regularly to capture variations across states and all areas, allowing us to explore differences by age, family structure, and race and ethnicity.
Join Urban for a discussion on the new measure and how policymakers and researchers can leverage insights from this research to improve American families’ well-being.
Speakers
- Gregory Acs, Vice President for Income and Benefits Policy, Urban Institute
- Jennifer Jones Austin, President, Federation for Protestant Welfare Agencies
- Indivar Dutta-Gupta, Doris Duke Distinguished Visiting Fellow, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University
- Myra Jones-Taylor, Senior Vice President for Impact and External Affairs, Urban Institute
Additional speakers to be announced.