The New York Fed finds that the 55 million U.S. households that struggle to afford necessities also have limited access to affordable credit. Such access is important to lower-income households, since borrowing at a reasonable rate can help families meet expenses that might otherwise be out of reach, like college, job training, home maintenance, and car repairs.
The report examines access to credit for families that are below the Federal Poverty Level, as well as households that are Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE), with income above the federal poverty level but below the cost of basics in the counties where they live. Together, those categories comprise 42% of U.S. households.
Using regional data on credit availability, such as the percentage of the population with no credit score or no revolving credit, the report compares credit access in low-income counties with credit access in higher-income counties. The report was produced in partnership with United for ALICE, a project of the United Way of Northern New Jersey, which provided ALICE data for the report.
Key findings:
- Counties with a higher share of ALICE households and better access to affordable credit had higher median incomes and higher rates of employment, homeownership, and bachelor’s degree completion than low-income counties where households had less access to affordable credit.
- Low-income counties have a greater share of borrowers who have no revolving credit, overutilize credit, have deep subprime credit, and are struggling or delinquent on payments than higher-income counties.
- In New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, 15% of the population live in low-income counties where people have limited access to mainstream credit, while 47% of the population live in counties that have strong access to credit and are higher income.
- One-third of people in credit-insecure low-income counties live in rural areas.
The report is part of the New York Fed Community Development team’s ongoing work to understand credit access for lower-income households. It follows the 2025 report, Credit Insecurity in the United States: 2018-2023; The State of Low-Income America: Credit Access & Housing, released in 2024; and The State of Low-Income America: Credit Access & Debt Payment, released in 2022.
The Community Development team works to understand the economic experiences of lower-income households and communities to help build a stronger economy for all Americans. Community development is one of the Federal Reserve’s core functions as the U.S. central bank, rooted in the Fed’s mandates from Congress.
