New Report: Growing Number of Americans Can’t Cover Basic Expenses if Job Loss or Other Emergency Strikes

Washington, DC—In the United States, 27 percent of all households are “asset poor,” meaning they lack
the savings or other assets to cover basic expenses for just three months if a layoff or other emergency
leads to loss of income, according to the 2012 Assets & Opportunity Scorecard, released today by the
Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED).  Since the release of the 2009-2010 Assets & Opportunity
Scorecard, the number of asset poor families has increased by 21 percent  from one in five families to one in
four families. The asset poverty rate is now nearly twice as high as the Census Bureau’s official income
poverty rate of 15.1 percent.

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