{"id":70797,"date":"2026-03-17T19:59:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T19:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/a-typical-u-s-family-needs-annual-income-of-145000-to-thrive-study-finds-about-half-fall-short\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T19:59:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T19:59:45","slug":"a-typical-u-s-family-needs-annual-income-of-145000-to-thrive-study-finds-about-half-fall-short","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/a-typical-u-s-family-needs-annual-income-of-145000-to-thrive-study-finds-about-half-fall-short\/","title":{"rendered":"A typical U.S. family needs annual income of $145,000 to thrive, study finds. About half fall short."},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>Roughly half of Americans fall short of the annual income needed to cover their basic needs, according to new research.<\/p>\n<p>A U.S. family with children needs about $145,000 in income to be considered economically secure, according to a March 16\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.urban.org\/research\/publication\/update-2023-measuring-true-cost-economic-security\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">report<\/a> from the Urban Institute. About 49% of Americans live below that financial threshold, the nonpartisan think tank found.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024 (the latest available data), the median household income for married couples in the U.S. was $128,700, U.S. Census data <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.census.gov\/library\/publications\/2025\/demo\/p60-286.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">shows<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Ingredients for economic security\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>According to Urban&#8217;s analysis, economic security today includes having enough money to pay for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Adequate food<\/li>\n<li>Clothing<\/li>\n<li>Housing\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Health care<\/li>\n<li>Child care<\/li>\n<li>Transportation<\/li>\n<li>Postsecondary education\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Student loan repayments<\/li>\n<li>Savings for emergencies and retirement<\/li>\n<li>Additional costs, such as for personal care products<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The research comes as many Americans continue to <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/affordability-2025-inflation-food-prices-housing-child-care-health-costs\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">feel the pinch<\/a><\/span> of rising prices, with even some six-figure households saying they are struggling to pay for basics like <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/cbs-news-poll-economy-house-job-opportunity\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">utilities<\/a><\/span> and <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/health-care-costs-americans-skip-meals-ration-medication\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">health care<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Riding the &#8220;hamster wheel&#8221;<\/h2>\n<p>While Urban&#8217;s measure differs from the poverty rate, which measures extreme hardship, it signals that even people with good-paying jobs may still not be earning enough to feel as if they are thriving.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That is consistent with the experiences that we&#8217;re hearing from people \u2014 that they might not be destitute, but some of them are skipping bills \u2014 and some of them are making their bills on a regular basis, but they&#8217;re not getting ahead,&#8221; economist Gregory Acs, vice president of Urban&#8217;s tax and income supports division and a co-author of the report, told CBS News.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He added, &#8220;They feel like they&#8217;re on the hamster wheel economy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Earning above the $145,000 annual income threshold allows people to get ahead and feel financially secure, the analysis said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you have more people feeling that their efforts are rewarded, that they have a stronger sense of autonomy, they are able to devote more time to their own communities, to their own families,&#8221; Acs said. &#8220;Parents can invest more in their kids \u2014 time, energy, money.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>The real poverty line?<\/h2>\n<p>The analysis echoes a viral\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.yesigiveafig.com\/p\/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Substack post from 2025<\/a> by Wall Street strategist Michael Green that posited that the actual poverty line in the U.S. \u2014 or how much you have to earn to afford necessities like food and shelter \u2014 is in reality much higher than the government&#8217;s official number, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthcare.gov\/glossary\/federal-poverty-level-fpl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">stands<\/a> at $33,000 for a family of four.<\/p>\n<p>By Green&#8217;s calculation, Americans who earn less than $140,000 should be considered poor because their income isn&#8217;t sufficient to pay for basics like housing, childcare and food \u2014 similar to the measures the Urban Institute used in its analysis.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He called it a poverty rate \u2014 I think it actually was more of an economic security rate,&#8221; Acs said, referring to Green&#8217;s post. &#8220;His intuition, in his back-of-the-envelope calculation, is broadly consistent with the way we added things up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The same share of Americans likely remains below the economic security threshold in 2026, Acs noted, given that wages and inflation have been rising relatively in tandem in the last several years. Still, some households may be facing more acute financial stress this year, such as those who\u00a0<span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/health-insurance-costs-aca-premiums-families\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">lost enhanced premium health credits<\/a><\/span> for the Affordable Care Act plans when they expired in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Who struggles most<\/h2>\n<p>The share of people who live below Urban&#8217;s economic security threshold varies by race, age and family composition, the analysis found. Single-parent households have among the lowest rates of economic security, with about 90% below the research firm&#8217;s proposed threshold.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>About 8 in 10 U.S. renters fall below the economic security line, roughly double the rate of homeowners, the research found, which also noted that about 45% of families with one member over the age of 65 lack economic security.<\/p>\n<p>Under-65 households without children need about $95,900 in annual earnings to meet basic needs, less than families with kids, largely because they don&#8217;t face child care costs, according to Urban.<\/p>\n<p>Families with at least one adult over 65 require $108,500 for economic security. While they don&#8217;t require childcare, older households tend to have higher healthcare costs, the analysis found.<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<p class=\"content__meta--editors\">\n      Edited by<\/p>\n<p>                                  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/team\/alain-sherter\/\" class=\"byline__author__link\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Alain  Sherter<\/a>\n                      <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  \">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">More from CBS News<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"component__item-recirc-block\">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">Go deeper with The Free Press<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/income-needed-get-ahead-145k-half-americans-study\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Roughly half of Americans fall short of the annual income needed to cover their basic needs, according to new research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[730],"class_list":["post-70797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us","tag-economy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A typical U.S. family needs annual income of $145,000 to thrive, study finds. 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