More than 7 million U.S. households, or about 5.4% of the total, did not have a bank account last year, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, CNBC reports.
The FDIC found 7.1 million homes, or 5.4% of American households, did not have a bank account in the report, "How America Banks: Household Use of Banking and Financial Services." The organization estimates about 124.2 million American households include at least one member with a bank account based on a survey of nearly 33,000 households conducted in conjunction with the U.S. Census Bureau over the last year.
Just over half of those respondents who lack a bank account, 56.2%, said they were not interested in getting one, while about 24.8% were. The most common reason for not having an account was an inability to meet the minimum required balance.
The report does note "the unbanked rate fell by 1.1 percentage points" between 2017 and 2019, about half of which "was associated with improvements in the socioeconomic circumstances of U.S. households over this period. However, even after these improvements were accounted for, the remainder of the decline in the unbanked rate across years was statistically significant."
The unbanked rate peaked at 8.2% in 2011 and has steadily fallen since then. The report notes "About two-thirds of the decline in the unbanked rate between 2011 and 2019 was associated with improvements in the socioeconomic circumstances of U.S. households over this period."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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