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Economic Experience Dashboard

The Economic Experience Dashboard is designed to provide a corrected view of the actual economic experience of the US population. By factoring together multiple economic data sources we can track the actual financial health and experience of individuals and families trying to balance a budget.

Economic Experience Dashboard
S3T Affordability Distress Indicator – U.S. Households
As of: 2025-10
11% of U.S. adults are in Severe Affordability Distress, and 19% are in Moderate Distress. In total, 52% face some level of affordability strain (mild, moderate, or severe).
Secure
48%
Budget covers essentials, debt, and saving; room for shocks.
Mild Distress
22%
Generally stable, but higher prices and interest costs pinch. May not have adequate savings.
Moderate Distress
19%
Essentials, rent, and debt service regularly strain the budget.
Severe Distress
11%
Frequent trade-offs between food, housing, healthcare, and bills.
Severe distress by region
Share of adults in severe affordability distress (higher bar = more strain).
Northeast 9%
Midwest 9%
South 13%
West 12%
Where the strain is most intense
Severe and moderate affordability distress by geography (rural vs metros).
Rural
Severe 13%
Moderate 23%
Mild 24%
Secure 40%
Small Metro
Severe 11%
Moderate 20%
Mild 23%
Secure 46%
Large Metro
Severe 10%
Moderate 17%
Mild 20%
Secure 53%

Jan 2026

Data sources & recency
All indicators below are based on the most recent nationally representative data available as of December 2025. Where datasets lag real time, the measurement year is explicitly noted.
  • Federal Reserve – Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED)
    Financial well-being categories, emergency savings, late bills, ability to get by.
    Data year: 2024 • Published: May 2025
    Summary  |  Full report (PDF)
  • Urban Institute – American Affordability Tracker
    Share of people lacking resources to live securely in their community.
    Data coverage: 2023–2024 • Tool updated: 2025
    Interactive tracker  |  Technical appendix
  • Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies – America’s Rental Housing
    Housing cost burden and severe burden (rent + utilities as % of income).
    Measurement year: 2022 ACS • Published: 2024
    Full report (PDF)
  • Federal Reserve Bank of New York – Household Debt and Credit
    Mortgage, auto, credit card, student loan balances and delinquency rates.
    Data quarter: Q3 2025 • Released: November 2025
    Data portal  |  Quarterly report (PDF)
  • Freddie Mac – Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS)
    30-year fixed mortgage rate used in borrowing-cost pressure index.
    Observation week: Week ending Dec 31, 2025
    PMMS data
  • Federal Reserve (FRED / G.19)
    Credit card interest rates and consumer credit conditions.
    Latest observation: November–December 2025
    Credit card interest rate series
  • MIT Living Wage Calculator
    County-level realistic family budgets (housing, food, healthcare, childcare, transportation, savings).
    Methodology updated: 2024–2025
    Calculator  |  Methodology
  • KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation)
    Medical debt prevalence and healthcare cost burden indicators.
    Survey years: 2023–2024 • Published: 2024–2025
    Health cost & medical debt brief
  • Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
    Consumer Expenditure Survey, CPI components, U-3/U-6 employment measures, regional labor data.
    Data coverage: 2024–2025
    Consumer Expenditure Survey  |  CPI  |  Labor underutilization (U-6)
Note on recency: Some structural affordability inputs (e.g., housing burden from ACS) necessarily lag real time by 1–2 years. The S3T ADI corrects for this by incorporating current-period borrowing costs, delinquency trends, and survey-based financial stress indicators to reflect lived conditions as of the current month.

Experimental (different layout and calculations)

Affordability Distress Indicator

Intelligence Unit • Jan 2026 Update

21%
Severe Distress Share
Structural financial distress has climbed 100bps YoY as credit card APRs and "sticky" essential costs (insurance/utilities) squeeze the bottom two quintiles.

Regional Intensity & Velocity

South ▲
24%
West ●
22%
Northeast ▲
20%
Midwest ▼
18%

Distress Trajectory (2023 - 2026)

JAN '23 (18%)
JAN '24 (19%)
JAN '25 (20%)
JAN '26 (21%)



S3T Economic Experience Dashboard
Severe affordability distress: 10%
Share of U.S. adults in “Severe” ADI category (latest data vintage used).
As of: 2025-12
ADI combines essentials cost pressure, borrowing costs, employment quality, and wage adequacy vs realistic budgets.
Secure
48%
Budget covers necessities + savings.
Mild distress
24%
Tight months; limited buffer.
Moderate distress
18%
Frequent tradeoffs; debt reliance.
Severe distress
10%
Bills behind or persistent shortfall.
Severe distress by region
(Bar length scaled to the highest region)
Northeast
10%
Midwest
8%
South
10%
West
12%
Moderate & severe distress by geography
Rural
Moderate: 17%
Severe: 9%
Higher transport + thinner job markets.
Small metro
Moderate: 18%
Severe: 10%
Rents rising faster than wages.
Large metro
Moderate: 19%
Severe: 12%
Housing + childcare dominate budgets.
Where the strain is most intense
Recurring necessities (housing, childcare, healthcare, food, utilities) drive most household stress because they are paid frequently and leave little room to absorb borrowing costs (mortgages, credit cards, student loans, medical debt). “Employed” does not always mean “economically secure” when wages lag realistic local budgets.
Data sources (click to view)
How these numbers are produced (at a glance)
ADI buckets are estimated by reconciling (a) self-reported hardship signals (Fed SHED), (b) housing cost burden distributions (Harvard JCHS / Census), (c) debt stress and delinquencies (NY Fed / Fed G.19 / KFF), and (d) wage adequacy vs realistic budgets (MIT Living Wage methodology). Output shares are normalized to sum to 100% across Secure/Mild/Moderate/Severe.