Demographics

Financial Health Score (FHN FinHealth Survey)

Unchanged from a year ago; nearly 1 in 3 in 'poor' financial health

What is the current Financial Health Score (FHN FinHealth Survey)?

AMERICANS IN FINANCIALLY HEALTHY TIER
30 ↓ Worsening
of Americans are classified as financially healthy
One year ago
30
unchanged since 2023

Roughly 30% of American households scored in the 'Financially Healthy' tier of the Financial Health Network's annual Pulse assessment in 2024, which measures eight dimensions of financial well-being: spending, saving, borrowing, and planning. The remaining households scored as Coping (managing day-to-day but not resilient to shocks) or Vulnerable (struggling across multiple dimensions). Source: Financial Health Network FinHealth Pulse.

The Financial Health Network classifies 30 of Americans as financially healthy in 2024. Down from 34% in 2021.

The Financial Health Network's FinHealth Pulse Survey, a nationally representative annual study, sorts Americans into three tiers: Financially Healthy, Coping, and Vulnerable. The 2024 survey finds 30 in the healthy tier. The majority fall into Coping or Vulnerable — unable to cover all their obligations without strain, or failing to cover them outright.

The 2021 reading was 34%. That reflected a moment of stimulus checks, paused student loan payments, and a personal savings rate that briefly hit two digits. Every one of those supports has since rolled off.

The decline came from every support layer being pulled at once. No single shock. A coordinated rollback. The stimulus ended. The child tax credit expansion expired. SNAP emergency allotments sunset. The student loan pause closed. Each rollback, on its own, was manageable. Stacked, they moved the national financial health score multiple percentage points in the wrong direction and held it there.

This survey adds a household-level view to the structural measures. The Buffer reports the personal savings rate, while The Safety Net reports the share able to cover a $1,000 emergency from savings. These measures can be read together as distinct views of financial capacity; this page does not claim a validated lag from one to later debt stress.

Source: Financial Health Network Annual Survey · Source data ↗ · Latest: 2024

Explore Further

How has Financial Health Score (FHN FinHealth Survey) changed over time?

CSV Chart Card
30 of Americans are classified as financially healthy
Financial Health Network FinHealth Pulse Survey, share of adults in the healthy tier
Financial Health Score (FHN FinHealth Survey)
Historical data
Annual · Financial Health Network Annual Survey
Period Value YoY Change
2024 30 0
2023 30 -1
2022 31 -3
2021 34 +1
2020 33 +4
2019 29 +1
2018 28

Frequently Asked Questions

What share of Americans are financially healthy?

30% of U.S. households scored in the Financially Healthy tier of the 2024 FinHealth Pulse. The rest scored Coping or Vulnerable — able to get by day-to-day, or struggling, but not resilient to a financial shock.

What does the FinHealth Pulse measure?

The Financial Health Network's annual Pulse survey scores households across eight dimensions spanning spend, save, borrow, and plan — for example whether income reliably covers expenses, whether savings could absorb an emergency, and whether debt is manageable relative to income.

Where does this data come from?

The Financial Health Network publishes the FinHealth Pulse survey annually, drawing on a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults.

Ross Kilburn
Written by

Ross Kilburn, Founder

American Default Research · Seattle, Washington

Two decades working directly with financially distressed American households — from property preservation in 2003, to negotiating over 1,000 short sales during the Great Recession, to foreclosure defense marketing today. Author, The Ark Law Group Complete Guide to Short Sales (Auroch Press, 2013). Twice named to Puget Sound Business Journal Fast 50 for Ark Law Group. B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1992. Founded American Default Research in 2026 to fill a gap in public data that had been empty since 2013.

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Why does Financial Health Score (FHN FinHealth Survey) matter?

Financial Health Score (FHN FinHealth Survey) is one of 98 live indicators tracked by American Default Research. The methodology page explains sources, update cadence, and how the index uses its published inputs.
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