In November 2022, 81 percent of New Yorkers voted to establish a true cost of living (TCOL) measure to capture what it costs to live with dignity in New York City. The Urban Institute developed the TCOL measure, modeling it after Urban’s true cost of economic security measure. The TCOL takes a comprehensive approach to analyzing family well-being and considers not just what it takes to make ends meet, but the full scope of resources families require to meet all their basic expenses and achieve economic security.

Why This Matters

As part of the 2022 legislature that established a local cost of living measure, the city is required to track expenses faced by New Yorkers each year and report on the share of people that have sufficient resources to thrive in New York City. The TCOL goes beyond measuring acute need. It captures the challenges millions of families have paying for food, housing, health care, and other basic expenses, while still trying to set aside money for the future. The struggles are widespread, but some families fare worse based on where they live or their family composition.

What We Found

Our research found the following for 2022:

• Most New Yorkers are economically insecure. About 62 percent of people in families in New York City do not meet the TCOL threshold and are not poised to thrive.
• Economic insecurity varies widely by borough. TCOL rates range from 75 percent in the Bronx to 49 percent in Staten Island. Rates are 56 percent in Manhattan, 61 percent in Queens, and 62 percent in Brooklyn.
• Children face higher economic insecurity. About 73 percent of children live in families below the TCOL threshold, a higher proportion than working-age (59 percent) and older adults (61 percent). Single-parent families are especially vulnerable: more than 90 percent of people in single-parent families are below the TCOL threshold.
• Economic security varies by race and ethnicity. About 44 percent of white, non-Hispanic people are below the TCOL threshold, compared with 78 percent for Hispanic people. The TCOL rates for Black people and Asian and Pacific Islanders are 66 and 63 percent, respectively.
• Resource gaps are large across the city. People in families below the TCOL threshold face an average family-level shortfall of $40,200, ranging from $45,000 in Manhattan to about $38,000 in Queens and Brooklyn.
• Public benefits significantly reduce gaps. Median benefits from public assistance programs and tax credits amount to $31,100 for people in families below the TCOL with children and adults under age 65 and are highest in the Bronx and Brooklyn ($36,600 and $34,300, respectively).
• Social insurance is critical for older adults. Social Security and Medicare add more than $23,000 to median resources for people in families with adults age 65 and older.

How We Did It

The TCOL draws from Urban’s true cost of economic security measure and captures costs associated with housing, food, health care, child care, transportation, technology, taxes, student debt, caring for people with disabilities, savings, and miscellaneous costs for items such as clothing, personal hygiene, and cleaning products. We obtain family characteristics and resources using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) as enhanced by Urban’s Analysis of Transfers, Taxes, and Income Security (ATTIS) microsimulation model, which adjusts for resources unavailable or underestimated in survey data. The TCOL builds on the TCES by updating information on costs and incorporating local resources not reflected in the ACS. We updated the cost thresholds to more precisely capture the housing, child care, tax, and miscellaneous expenses faced by all New York City families and the caregiving expenses faced by people with disabilities. On the resource side, the TCOL also factors in the value of additional housing subsidies and child care resources provided to New York City families.