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Fed Report: Non-Metro Financial Conditions Are Worsening [1]
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Date: 2025-06-25
Nonmetro areas continue to be worse off financially than metros, according to a report released May 28 by the Federal Reserve Board.
Based on the Fed’s latest annual survey of consumer economic well-being, the report says that in 2024 “[p]eople living in non-metro areas had lower levels of financial well-being than those living in metro areas.”
The difference is stark.
In nonmetro areas 66% of survey respondents – compared to 74% in metro areas – said they are doing okay or living comfortably financially. The gap between nonmetro and metro in this measure is widening. In last year’s survey 68% of nonmetro and 73% of metro respondents said that in 2023 they are “at least doing okay financially.”
Table 1. Doing okay or living comfortably financially (% of respondents)
2024
2023
Change since pandemic (2019) Metro 74 73 -2 Nonmetro 66 68 -6
The survey was conducted in October 2024 and generated 12,393 completed responses.
The survey also found a very large difference in nonmetro and metro residents’ views of their local economies. The report said that “those living in a non-metro area continued to rate their local economy much less favorably than those living in a metro area. Thirty-one percent of adults living in a non-metro area rated their local economy as ‘good’ or ‘excellent,’ compared with 48% of those living in a metro area.”
Another finding that seems alarming is that six percent of metro and 10% of nonmetro residents have no homeowner’s insurance on their primary residence.
The report has nonmetro versus metro area comparisons for only the three above findings.
This Federal Reserve report is perhaps best known for its finding that many US households would have difficulty paying for a $400 emergency expense such as a car repair or medical bill. In the 2023 survey, 36% of metro and 43% of nonmetro respondents said they could not pay such a $400 amount with cash or the equivalent (e.g., a credit card paid off in one month). The new 2025 report says that 37% of all respondents could not pay such a bill with cash or the equivalent. But the new 2025 report does not include a nonmetro/metro breakdown for this question. The full 2025 report is available here.
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[1] Url:
https://dailyyonder.com/fed-report-non-metro-financial-conditions-are-worsening/2025/06/25/
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