About seven in ten Georgians are struggling to afford at least one basic necessity, according to a new Family Economic Well-Being Index from the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality.
The study found that healthcare is the biggest pressure point in the state, with 48% of Georgians living in households where medical costs are judged unaffordable. The figure is seven percentage points above the national rate of 41%.
Food costs are also placing a heavier strain on Georgia families than they are across the US. Some 36% of Georgians face a food burden, compared with 32% nationwide.
Lelaine Bigelow, executive director of the Georgetown centre, said the findings showed that financial hardship extended beyond households officially classed as poor.
“While families in poverty face the greatest difficulty affording the basics, this struggle reaches well into the middle class,” she said. “Millions of people are working hard and still can’t get ahead of these costs.”
Healthcare and food costs weigh heavily on Georgia families
The index measures whether people can afford four essentials: housing, food, healthcare and childcare. It is designed to show financial pressure that may not be captured by the traditional poverty line.
A household is considered burdened by healthcare costs when estimated insurance premiums and out-of-pocket medical expenses account for at least 10% of its income. Food is classed as a burden when the estimated cost of a low-cost US Department of Agriculture food plan reaches 18% of household income.
Housing costs in Georgia are broadly in line with the national picture. The study found that 32% of Georgians face a housing burden, compared with 33% across the country, using a threshold of 30% of income spent on rent or mortgage payments and utilities.
Childcare was the only category in which Georgia performed better than the national average. Among households with a child under six, 53% faced a childcare burden, compared with 61% nationwide.
Despite being lower than the national figure, the result means that more than half of Georgia households with young children are still struggling to meet childcare costs.
Families face several pressures at once
The report warns that its figures should not be added together because the same household may be affected by more than one expense.
In Georgia, 19% of people face burdens in at least three of the four categories, compared with 16% nationwide. A further 21% face two burdens, while 29% face one.
Children are particularly likely to live in households facing overlapping pressures. The study found that 28% of children in Georgia are exposed to three or more burdens, against 25% across the US.
Overall, about 30% of Georgians face none of the four measured burdens, although the percentages are rounded and do not total exactly 100%.
The research also found that cost pressures cut across income groups. Georgetown said 99% of people in the bottom fifth of earners faced at least one burden, while almost half of those in the upper-middle fifth did so.
The findings are based primarily on data from the 2023 American Community Survey, combined with estimated costs for food and childcare. They are intended to provide a picture of household affordability rather than a precise account of what families are paying this week.
Being classed as burdened does not necessarily mean that a household has missed a bill or gone without food or medical treatment. It means that the estimated cost of one of the essentials has reached the affordability threshold used by the index.
Georgetown said the results illustrated why poverty statistics and individual household bills alone can fail to show the pressure created when several unavoidable costs arrive at the same time.
