Money Under the Mattress?

New Findings Show Growing Rates of Unbanked Americans

by Joanne K. Yoong, Angela A. Hung

Money Under the Mattress?

New findings show growing rates of unbanked Americans

Having a bank account increases security, reduces vulnerability to theft, and helps account holders develop financial smarts. But survey data from RAND's American Life Panel suggest that the fraction of American households with no savings or checking bank accounts is on the rise.

15.5% Unbanked in 2011

Up by about a third since a 2009 FINRA Investor Education Foundation survey

 $30,000 A Class Divide

36% of households earning less than $30,000 a year are unbanked, compared with just 7% of those earning more
1 in 3. Proportion of Blacks and Hispanics Who Are Unbanked

Racial and ethnic disparities in banking status persist, but there is no gender gap

 Top 3 Reasons Respondents Say They Don't Bank

Not enough money, 58%
Don't like dealing with banks, 40%
Don't want/need an account, 35%
SOURCE: New Findings on the Unbanked in America: Results from the 2011 American Life Panel Survey, Angela A. Hung, Joanne K. Yoong, RAND/OP369-1, 2012.

This report is part of the RAND Corporation Infographic series. RAND infographics are design-focused, visual representations of data and information based on a published, peer-reviewed product or a body of published work.

Our mission to help improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis is enabled through our core values of quality and objectivity and our unwavering commitment to the highest level of integrity and ethical behavior. To help ensure our research and analysis are rigorous, objective, and nonpartisan, we subject our research publications to a robust and exacting quality-assurance process; avoid both the appearance and reality of financial and other conflicts of interest through staff training, project screening, and a policy of mandatory disclosure; and pursue transparency in our research engagements through our commitment to the open publication of our research findings and recommendations, disclosure of the source of funding of published research, and policies to ensure intellectual independence. For more information, visit www.rand.org/about/research-integrity.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.