Household Survival Budget: The bare-minimum costs of basic necessities (housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, and a smartphone plan).

ALICE Threshold: The average income needed to afford the Household Survival Budget. Households below the ALICE Threshold include both ALICE and poverty-level households.

ALICE: Households with income above the Federal Poverty Level but below the basic cost of living.

Poverty: Households earning below the Federal Poverty Level

Total Households: The number of households as reported by the American Community Survey.

We all know people who are ALICE — Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. ALICE workers were celebrated as essential heroes during the COVID-19 pandemic, yet they do not earn enough to support their own families. ALICE households and households in poverty are forced to make tough choices, such as deciding between quality child care or paying the rent, which have long-term consequences not only for their families, but for all.

In order to better understand this growing population of struggling households, United For ALICE provides a framework, language, statistics, and tools that community stakeholders can use to inform policy and drive innovation.

Across the U.S., the ALICE Essentials Index has increased at a higher rate than the CPI for more than fifteen years. From 2007 to 2023, the average annual rate of increase for the ALICE Essentials Index was 3.3%, while the CPI increased by 2.5% on average. For context, the median wage for the most common occupation in the U.S., a retail salesperson, increased 2.8% annually from 2007 to 2022 (the latest data available). The sustained lag behind the actual cost of basic goods equates to a loss of more than $26,000 over the past 15 years for a retail salesperson — more than a full year’s earnings.

Comparison of Inflation, ALICE Essentials Index vs. CPI and Retail Sales Wage, United States, 2007–2023

Inflation in Basic Costs Varies by Location Across the U.S.

To better understand differences in the increasing cost of basic goods, the ALICE Essentials Index includes variations by urban and rural counties, U.S. regions, and states.

Inflation in Basic Costs in Urban and Rural Counties

Nationally from 2007 to 2023, the basic household goods in the ALICE Essentials Index were 18% to 25% more expensive in urban areas than in rural areas. However, those costs increased at nearly the same rate during this period — 3.1% annually in rural areas and 3.4% annually in urban areas.

ALICE Essentials Index, Urban vs. Rural Counties, United States, 2007–2023

Inflation by Region

Regional variations of the ALICE Essentials Index provide comparable measures of inflation for the four regions in the U.S. from 2007 to 2023. By the end of the period, basic household goods were most expensive in the West and Northeast, less expensive in the South, and least expensive in the Midwest. Over time, the rate of inflation was fairly similar across U.S. regions, with a few exceptions. For example, during the Great Recession (2007–2010), the rate in the South surged higher than in the other regions, and during the pandemic (2019–2022), the rate of inflation was highest in the West and lowest in the South.

ALICE Essentials Index by Region, United States, 2007–2023

Inflation in ALICE Partner States