U.S. Asset Poverty and the Great Recession

Caroline Ratcliffe, Sisi Zhang

How has family economic security, as measured by the net worth asset-poverty rate, changed since the onset of the Great Recession? Data from the 2007 and 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances show that one out of every five U.S. families (19.6 percent) was asset poor in 2010, up from 16.1 percent in 2007, which represents over 4 million additional asset-poor families in 2010. The Great Recession’s impact was widespread, the asset-poverty rate increased across the income spectrum, and increased for both white and minority families. Mid-aged families experienced relatively large increases in asset poverty.

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