Financial Health Pulse® 2026 U.S. Trends Report: Stressors Mount and Vulnerability Returns

The report's nationally representative longitudinal survey finds that the share of U.S. households classified as financially vulnerable rose from 15% in 2025 to 17% in 2026, while the financially healthy share remained at 31%. The share spending less than income fell from 49% to 47%, households reporting unmanageable debt rose from 29% to 31%, and only 54% felt at least somewhat confident that insurance would cover them in an emergency.

The 2026 survey included 7,662 respondents from USC's probability-based Understanding America Study. The authors connect financial health to the affordability of essentials, insurance confidence, debt, savings, and bill payment, and publish disaggregated data for more than two dozen demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.