The disposable income a household has left after paying taxes and covering essential expenses affects its ability to save, invest or even stay afloat, SmartAsset notes in a new study. And stretching a paycheck beyond the basics is getting harder for many Americans, it says.
In most big U.S. cities, the median household income falls short of what a small family needs to support itself, sometimes by many thousands of dollars a year.
For its study, SmartAsset researchers looked at the country’s 100 largest counties with available data to determine where households have the most and the least disposable income. They examined median household income data from County Health Rankings & Roadmaps data for 2024.
Data for the cost of necessities for both a single adult and for two working adults with one child came from MIT Living Wage Calculator as of February 2024.
The researchers found that just 18% of all counties have a median income higher than the cost to maintain a small family. Out of 100 counties nationwide, only 18 saw positive disposable income left over after accounting for basic costs, with the surplus being as low as just a few hundred dollars annually.
They calculated that for households earning the local median household income, 82% would fall financially short supporting two adults and a child.
See the gallery for the 12 U.S. counties where households had the most disposable income in 2024, according to SmartAsset.
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