Figure 2: Across multiple measures, households with low income face significantly more economic hardship than households with higher income

“Food insecurity” represents households “sometimes” or “often” finding it hard to afford enough food in recent weeks; “energy insecurity” represents households unable to pay energy bills in full at least “some months” in the past year; “housing insecurity” represents households behind on mortgage or rent at the time of the survey; households finding it “somewhat” or “very” difficult to meet usual household expenses in recent weeks; households in which a member had suffered a loss of employment income in recent weeks. Income levels represent 2020 household income.
Source: US Census Bureau, Household Pulse Survey, weeks 20-23 and 40-42, covering December-February 2020/1 and 2021/2. Get the data