More than one-third of U.S. households with children also report serious problems keeping their children’s education going and internet connectivity issues during this time.

For immediate release: September 23, 2020

Boston, MA – According to a new NPR/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll, 46% of U.S. households report facing serious financial problems during the coronavirus outbreak. Serious problems are reported across a wide range of areas during this time, including depleting household savings, serious problems paying credit card bills and other debt, and affording medical care.

Many of these problems are concentrated among households experiencing job or wage losses since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, households with annual incomes below $100,000, and Black and Latino households. For example, 46% of households in the U.S. report any adult household members have lost their jobs, been furloughed, or had wages or hours reduced since the start of the outbreak. And among these households with job or wage losses during the coronavirus outbreak, about two-thirds (68%) report facing serious financial problems. This includes nearly half (48%) of households with job or wage losses who have used up all or most of their savings during the coronavirus outbreak, while an additional 11% report not having any household savings prior to the outbreak (see Figure 1).

In addition, there is a steep income gradient in serious problems faced by households, as a majority (54%) of all U.S. households with annual incomes below $100,000 report serious financial problems during the coronavirus outbreak. Serious financial problems during the coronavirus outbreak are also reported by majorities of Latino (72%) and Black (60%) households during this time.

This poll, The Impact of Coronavirus on Households Across America, was conducted July 1 – August 3, 2020, among 3,454 U.S. adults. Adults in this survey were asked to report on serious problems facing both themselves and others living in their households, so measures are reported as a percentage of households for all household-related questions. See the Methodology below for further details.

In healthcare, one in five households in the U.S. (20%) report household members have been unable to get medical care for serious problems when they needed it during the coronavirus outbreak. A majority of these households with anyone who has been unable to get care when needed (57%) report negative health consequences as a result.

“Before federal coronavirus support programs even expired, we find millions of people with very serious problems with their finances, healthcare, and with caring for children,” said Robert J. Blendon, co-director of the survey and Richard L. Menschel Professor of Public Health and Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis Emeritus at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Though we want to believe we are all in this together, findings show problems concentrated in people who earn less than $100,000, people who have lost wages or jobs, and Black and Latino Americans.”

When it comes to caring for children, 59% of households with children in the U.S. report experiencing serious problems during this time. This includes more than one in three (36%) facing serious problems keeping their children’s education going, and among working households, nearly one in five (18%) reporting serious problems getting childcare when adults need to work (see Table 1 for details).  In addition, internet connectivity is also a major issue for some during this time, as about one in three households with children (34%) either do not have a high-speed internet connection at home or report serious problems with their internet connection to do schoolwork or their jobs.