Share of Bank of America Checking Households Living Paycheck to Paycheck
Also tracked as The Squeeze
Nearly 24%, 0.3 percentage points higher than in 2024
What is the current Share of Bank of America Checking Households Living Paycheck to Paycheck reading?
Bank of America Institute estimates that nearly 24% of households in its checking-account sample lived paycheck to paycheck in 2025, meaning necessity spending took more than 95% of their regular income. That is 0.3 percentage points higher than the report's figure for 2024. The figure covers the bank's own customers, not all U.S. households. Source: Bank of America Institute.
Measurement basis: Bank of America Institute's estimate of the share of households in its own checking-account sample whose necessary spending exceeds 95 percent of income. The sample is households that have held a U.S. Bank of America checking account for at least a year, whose payment channels the bank can observe, and who appear to bank primarily with Bank of America; Bank of America does not publish its size, and it is not a sample of U.S. households. Bank of America publishes the current reading rounded to a whole percent and qualified with “nearly”, not as a decimal. The two earlier observations are read from the report's chart, which prints no value for either year. The most recent observation covers data through the third quarter of its publication year.
In Bank of America's own account data, nearly 24% of households spent almost everything that came in on necessities in 2025.
Bank of America Institute counts a household as living paycheck to paycheck when its spending on necessities runs above 95% of its regular income. By that test, nearly 24% of the households in its checking-account sample qualified in 2025. That is 0.3 percentage points higher than the report's figure for 2024.
Necessities here are broader than rent and groceries. The bank's list includes housing, childcare, gasoline, insurance, cable and broadband, vehicle payments, taxes, general retail spending and payments on credit cards held elsewhere. Income means regular deposits such as paychecks, Social Security, unemployment benefits and pensions. The test does not look at savings balances or missed payments.
The sample is households that appear to bank mainly with Bank of America and have had a checking account for at least a year. The bank does not publish how many households that is, and it cautions that its data may not represent everyone. It is a read on the bank's customers, not a national rate. Each report also restates earlier years on its own time window, so years should be compared only within one report.
Bank of America's November 2025 report put the share at 29% for lower-income households in its sample in 2025. For a survey-based view of household cushions, see the Fed's emergency-expense survey; for the national savings rate, see the personal saving rate. They measure different things in different ways.
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Share of Bank of America Checking Households Living Paycheck to Paycheck over time: what has changed?
Counties with the highest safety net and buffer scores
These are safety net and buffer scores from our County Distress Index, not county readings of Share of Bank of America Checking Households Living Paycheck to Paycheck.
Explore all 3,144 counties →| Period | Value | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 24% | +0.3 pp |
| 2024 | 23.7% | +0.7 pp |
| 2023 | 23% | — |
Frequently Asked Questions
What share of Americans live paycheck to paycheck?
There is no single national figure. Bank of America's measure covers its own checking customers: nearly 24% of them spent more than 95% of income on necessities in 2025. Other widely quoted numbers, some near half of adults, come from surveys that ask people whether they feel they live paycheck to paycheck. Those measure something different and should not be set beside this one.
Is the share going up?
Within Bank of America's latest report, nearly 24% of households met the test in 2025. That is 0.3 percentage points higher than the report's figure for 2024. Earlier reports used a different time window and gave different figures for the same year, so do not compare numbers across reports.
How does Bank of America decide who lives paycheck to paycheck?
A household counts if its spending on necessities in a quarter is more than 95% of its regular income. Necessities include housing, childcare, insurance, gasoline, taxes, general retail and credit card payments to other lenders. The bank also publishes a looser 90% version as an alternative.
Where does the data come from?
Bank of America Institute builds it from anonymized, aggregated deposit and spending data for its own customers, not from a survey. It has published about once a year, most recently in November 2025, with each year's figure based on data through the third quarter. There is no fixed release schedule.
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