In Ohio, those expenses added up to $100,721 per year – and 45 percent of Ohioans did not have enough resources to cover those costs.
Traditionally, the government and many public service organizations rely on the poverty threshold to determine how many people are struggling to get by. But the national poverty threshold—$27,750 for a family of four in 2022—measures how much it takes to survive in today’s economy, not how much money a family would need to feel economically secure. That explains why 62 percent of households in Ohio expressed a high degree of financial stress in 2022, even though only 13.4 percent fell below the official poverty line.
The TCES measure gives a more holistic view of financial well-being, considering a vast set of costs and resources.
On the cost side, the Urban model includes expenses related to housing, food, health care, child care, transportation, technology, taxes, student debt, savings targets, and other miscellaneous costs.
On the resource side, the TCES measure considers families’ annual earnings, pension income and distributions from retirement savings accounts, cash transfers from social insurance and public assistance programs, the value of parent-provided child care and tax credits, and more.
Looking at the state of the nation in 2022, the model showed more than half (52 percent) of people in families nationwide lacked the resources to thrive, but these rates varied across the country. In 28 states, the majority of people were in families without enough resources to be economically secure. Ohio fared better than average, although 45 percent of people in families fell below the TCES threshold.
As anyone in Ohio knows, the number of people struggling to get by varies from one part of the state to another.
Among the five counties with available TCES data in Southwest Ohio, Butler County had the highest share of people in families below the threshold (48 percent), followed by Montgomery (47 percent), Hamilton (47 percent), Greene (37 percent), and Warren (30 percent). The share of people falling below the TCES threshold is even higher in all five counties when considering people in families with kids in which all adults are younger than age 65.
Families with kids living in Warren County faced the highest costs in the region ($138,000) but also had the greatest median resources by far ($160,000). Greene County was the only other county where a family with kids’ median resources ($132,000) exceeded median costs ($128,000). Montgomery County had the lowest median costs ($115,000) but also the lowest median resources ($104,000) — meaning many people in this county do not have the resources they need.
The TCES measure shows that local policymakers can have an impact across the state—even in relatively prosperous areas like Warren County, where nearly one-third of people do not have enough resources to thrive.
Policymakers can use these data to consider the unique economic and social conditions of each county to develop community-specific solutions. Counties with higher TCES rates could benefit from policies that increase resources, like expanded child care subsidies, and lower costs, like improved access to affordable housing. These combined approaches will help reduce economic insecurity and enable more families to thrive — not just survive — in their communities.
Lauren Simpson is a research analyst at the Urban Institute, whose work focuses on social safety net programs. She is based in Westerville, Ohio.
Margaret Todd is a research analyst at the Urban Institute, where she studies and analyzes safety net programs, with a focus on child care.