Pennsylvanians report that lack of financial knowledge carries a high cost, according to the NFEC’s most recent survey. Participants across the state responded to the single question: “During the past year, about how much money do you think you lost because you lacked knowledge about personal finances?” The results are shown below. Since 2017, the NFEC has conducted this annual survey, consistently revealing that the average individual cost of financial illiteracy approaches or exceeds $1,000 per person – with estimated national losses reaching into the hundreds of billions of dollars each year, and losses in the hundreds of millions across Pennsylvania.

Food insecurity and housing insecurity are the two metrics commonly used to illustrate financial vulnerability. Pennsylvania citizens in every county and congressional district are facing hunger. That means more than 1.7 million people – and one out of every six children – experience food insecurity in the state. And out of the Pennsylvania households that receive food assistance through the SNAP program, 33.9% have children in the home.

Housing insecurity seems to be improving somewhat in the Keystone State, with the World Population Review indicating that 14,088 Pennsylvanians were unsheltered in 2024, resulting in a homeless rate of 11 people per 10,000 residents. That figure had declined by 13.1% from the previous year. “Unsheltered” is defined as living in temporary shelters or transitional housing or sleeping in a place not intended for habitation (such as an abandoned building).