Tool to Help Unlock Insights About Financial Well-Being

Capturing a clear picture of Americans’ financial lives involves looking at not only financial metrics but also the circumstances that shape people’s everyday lives, such as access to health care and affordable child care.

But creating this holistic understanding can be difficult. Researchers, policymakers, and local officials must navigate a fragmented data landscape, which makes it challenging to understand people’s financial lives, much less develop solutions to improve them.

For example, to determine how many households have at least three months of living expenses in savings, you could consult the Financial Health Pulse (PDF). To figure out how many people recently went without medical care because they couldn’t afford it, you could look at the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (PDF). The Survey of Consumer Finances is considered the go-to source for comprehensive data about households’ balance sheets, and the American Community Survey allows researchers to explore local-level findings. Learn more.

Sourced from Urban Institute