Financial Wellbeing for Texans
The Texas economy appears strong, overall. For the year from December 2024 to December 2025, Texas had the highest job gains compared to other states along with a 4.3% unemployment rate, slightly below the national rate of 4.4%. Yet, a survey of Texans from January of 2026 found that just 24% of Texans felt that they were doing ok financially. Affordability is top of mind for many Texans. The statistics below offer some added insight into financial wellbeing in our state.
Financial Wellbeing Statistics
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13.8% of Texans have income below the federal poverty level, higher than the national poverty rate of 12.5%.
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The median household income for Texas households is $79,721, lower than the national median of $81,604.
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29% of Texas households are considered “ALICE”. ALICE — Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed — represents households that are above the Federal Poverty Level but that do not earn enough income to afford basic necessities. Adding the percent of households in poverty, more than 42% of Texas households are struggling to meet basic needs, the same as the national level.
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29.9% of Texans work but earn less than $17/hour. The rate of low-wage workers is 34.2% for Black workers and 40.3% for Latino/Hispanic workers.
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17.6% of Texas Households reported low or very low food security, the second highest rate in the nation. 6.6% of households reported very low food security
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32.2% of Texans are housing burdened, paying more than 30% of their income on housing costs. This includes 51.7% of renters.
Financial Services
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6.5% of Texans were unbanked (no bank account) compared to 5.4% of U.S. households.
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Black and Latino households represent 72% of Texas households using payday loans and 63% of those using auto title loans.
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Black (12.2%) and Hispanic (8.3%) households in Texas were unbanked than the 2.2% of unbanked White households.
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18.5% of Texas households were underbanked, which means non-bank financial instruments like nonbank check cashing, payday loans or pawn shop loans, compared to 14.2% of U.S. households.
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Black (28.3%) and Hispanic (24.1%) households in Texas had significantly higher rates of being underbanked than White households (12%).
Savings and Credit
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13.7% of Texans fell behind on their bills in the last 12 months, compared to 11.7% of US Households.
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14.2% of Texans had delinquent credit card accounts and 5.8% had delinquent car loans.
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The average FICO credit score in Texas is 692, compared to 715 nationally.
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From the 4th quarter of 2020 to the 4th quarter of 2025, credit card debt per capita increased by 50%, from $3080 to $4620.
Debt Collection