8.4 Million Households Go UnBanked Posted by Association of Vermont Credit Unions on 12:46 PM

To assess the inclusiveness of the banking system the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation conducted a June 2017 survey of 35,000 unbanked and underbanked households.

The survey provides estimates of the proportion of U.S. households that don't have an account at an insured institution and the proportion that have an account but obtained (non-bank) alternative financial services in the past 12 months. The survey provides insights to inform efforts to better meet the needs of these consumers within the banking sy
stem.

Estimates from the 2017 survey indicate that 6.5% of households in the United States were un-banked in 2017. This represents approximately 8.4m households. An additional 18.7% of households (24.2m) were under-banked . . . meaning that the household had a checking or savings account but also obtained financial products and services outside of the banking system.

The 2017 survey examines a number of additional topics, including the methods that banked households used to access accounts, bank branch visits, use of prepaid cards, use of alternative financial services, saving for unexpected expenses or emergencies, use of credit, and the methods that households used to conduct financial transactions in a typical month.

See http://www.economicinclusion.gov/ for survey findings, the ability to generate custom tables and charts using 2017 and earlier years of survey data, and data downloads and documentation.

The 2017 survey report, executive summary, and other related materials follow:

2017 Executive Summary - PDF
2017 Full Report - PDF
2017 Appendix Tables - PDF