How many Americans lack adequate resources—and how much do shared institutions reduce poverty?
Latest annual measures · 2024What share of Americans live below the SPM threshold?
About 43.8 million Americans lived in SPM poverty in 2024.What share live below half of the SPM threshold?
Roughly 14 million Americans lived in deep poverty.How much does Social Security reduce poverty?
Without Social Security, the SPM rate would have been about 21.4%; with it, 12.9%.Can American households withstand a loss of income, meet a sudden expense and maintain stable housing?
Latest annual measures · 2023–2025Who lacks savings to replace three months of expenses?
About 119.7 million adults did not report a three-month emergency fund.Who could not pay a $400 emergency expense with cash or its equivalent?
About 97.5 million adults could not cover the expense entirely with cash or its equivalent.How many households spend more than 30% of income on housing?
About 39.8 million households were housing-cost burdened.Are Americans finding work across adult life—and does full-time work cover essential expenses?
Annual measures · 2025What share of each adult age group is employed?
Employment is highest in the prime working years and declines across later adulthood.How many people are unemployed or want more work than they have?
About 13.9 million people experienced labor underutilization on an annual-average basis.How many full-time workers could not pay all their current-month bills?
An estimated 14.6 million full-time workers could not pay all their current-month bills.Who holds America’s wealth, who owns a home across adulthood, and how often do households seek bankruptcy relief?
Current measures with long comparisonsHow broadly is U.S. household wealth owned?
The top 10% held 67.9% of household wealth; the bottom half held 2.5%.How does homeownership vary by age—and versus one generation ago?
Homeownership rises sharply with age; most younger-adult groups trail comparable groups 25 years earlier.How many nonbusiness bankruptcy cases were filed?
Consumer filings remained about 46% below 2006, despite rising from pandemic-era lows.Is America creating prosperity without compromising future generations’ ability to thrive?
Climate, food systems and innovationIs the U.S. on track to cut net emissions 50–52% below 2005 by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050?
No. Net greenhouse-gas emissions were about 18% below 2005—roughly 32–34 points short of the 2030 target.Is the U.S. halving food waste by 2030?
One-quarter of the U.S. food supply went to landfill, incineration, sewer or was left in fields to rot.How has U.S. R&D investment changed since the Sustainable Development Goals were adopted in 2015?
U.S. R&D reached an estimated $993 billion—about 3.4% of GDP—in 2024, up from $495 billion and 2.7% in 2015.Every indicator uses the freshest verified observation available from a public source at the time of publication, with the source linked directly on its card. The reference period appears alongside the measure, so different metrics may have different reference periods.