While 94% of U.S. adults have a bank account, notable differences remain among different income and ethnic groups, the Federal Reserve said today in its report on the economic well-being of U.S. households in 2023. The Fed found that 72% of adults were doing “at least okay financially” last year, almost unchanged from 73% in 2022. It also found that 6% of adults were unbanked in 2023, unchanged from the year before.
Twenty-three percent of adults with incomes below $25,000 were unbanked compared with 1% of adults with incomes of $100,000 or more, according to the Fed. Fourteen percent of Black adults and 11% of Hispanic adults were unbanked, compared to 4% each for white and Asian adults. Eleven percent of adults with a disability were unbanked, compared to 5% without disabilities.
Banked and unbanked adults used nonbank providers to conduct financial transactions, but the unbanked were much more likely to have done so, the report concluded. Twelve percent of banked adults used a nonbank money order or check cashing service, compared with 33% of unbanked adults. The Fed also found that 7% of adults held or used cryptocurrency last year, down three percentage points from 2022 and five percentage points from 2021.
Credit access for Americans held steady
Thirty-six percent of adults applied for credit in 2023, unchanged from recent years but down from 41% in 2019, before the pandemic, the Fed said. Roughly a third of people who applied reported either being denied for credit or approved for less credit than they requested, up two percentage points from 2022 and up five percentage points from 2021.
Eighty-two percent of adults had a credit card in 2023, the Fed said. Nearly all adults with incomes of at least $100,000 had a credit card, with adults with incomes lower than $25,000 the only income group where less than half of adults had credit cards. The report also found that 14% of people used a buy now, pay later product in the prior 12 months, up two percentage points from the year before. More than half (55%) of those who used BNPL—and 69% of those with incomes less than $50,000 who used the products—said they used BNPL because it was the only way they could afford a purchase.
