Public benefit programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and housing assistance help support young adults’ healthy development, especially when personal and family resources are limited. Yet accessing these benefits is particularly challenging for this age group because of program rules and processes that do not fit the complex realities of their lives, developmental stages, or strengths. As a result, many young adults do not receive the assistance they qualify for.
Why This Matters
Young adults’ rates of participation in public programs are already substantially lower than for other adults, and recent federal policy changes under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act threaten to further reduce their access to SNAP and Medicaid. Lack of access to these programs during a period of significant opportunity and growth can leave young adults’ basic needs unmet in the short term and make it harder for them to reach their full potential in the long term.
What We Found
Food insecurity was the most commonly reported hardship. In 2025, more than 30 percent of young adults experienced household food insecurity; roughly 15 percent each had difficulty paying for housing, utilities, and/or family medical bills; and about 6.5 percent experienced a utility shutoff.
Young adults were more likely than other adults to face certain hardships. In 2025, rates of material hardship among young adults were higher than those among adults ages 25–64 across household food insecurity, problems paying rent or mortgage, and utility shutoffs.
Young adults were more likely to receive charitable food. People often turn to charitable food (e.g., free groceries from a food pantry, food bank, or church) because public benefits are insufficient, or because they are not eligible for or cannot access benefits. Almost one in four young adults reported receiving charitable food in 2025—a higher rate than among adults ages 25–64.
Hardship shifted for adults from 2019 to 2025. Examining hardship trends over this period for young adults and adults ages 25–64 shows that food insecurity rose after 2021, problems paying for housing stayed relatively stable, and problems paying medical bills declined during the pandemic before partially rebounding in recent years. Hardship was generally lowest during 2020 and 2021, when federal pandemic relief programs provided households with additional resources.
How We Did It
We examined the share of young adults ages 18 to 24 who reported in the December 2025 Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS) that their households had experienced material hardships during the previous 12 months. We assessed five domains of hardship: household food insecurity, problems paying rent or mortgage, problems paying utility bills, utility shutoffs, and problems paying family medical bills.
Our analyses use survey weights to produce nationally representative estimates in December 2025. We estimate changes in each hardship measure from December 2019 to December 2025 and report these trends by age group for young adults ages 18–24 and other adults ages 25–64.
