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Struggling to Stay Afloat: The Real Cost Measure in California 2018

Stay tuned for a new annual public data release on the Real Cost Measure coming in Spring 2019!

United Ways of California is glad to release Struggling to Stay Afloat: The Real Cost Measure in California 2018, our new statewide report on financial challenges for working families.

Unlike the official poverty measure which does not accurately account for local costs of living, the Real Cost Measure factors the costs of housing, food, health care, child care, transportation and other basic needs to determine what it really costs to live in California.

At the heart of the Real Cost Measure are household budgets. Household budgets are easy to understand as they speak to the realities families have to deal with everyday: How much can I afford on school supplies for my children after my reduced work hours this summer? How do I replace my leaky roof when all my income has gone towards this month's mortgage payment? How am I going to give my daughter medical attention when the transmission in our car is broken? Through our interactive household budgets tool, we have the ability to better understand the hardships households face based on the county they live in.

In addition to a full report, the Real Cost Measure in California features interactive household budgets that calculates basic needs up to 20 persons in a household for each of California’s 58 counties, interactive maps at the county and neighborhood level, one-page county profiles, a public data set, and more.

Some of the key findings from The Real Cost Measure in California 2018 include:

Key Findings

1 in 3 Households Struggle: More than one in three California households (33%) do not earn sufficient income to meet basic needs
Working hard, but not earning enough: Of the estimated 3.3 million households in California that fall below the Real Cost Measure, 9 in 10 have at least one working adult (when you control for households led by seniors and people with disabilities)
Housing Burden: Nearly 4 in 10 households in California (38%) pay more than 30% of their income on housing. Households below the Real Cost Measure report spending from 45% of their income on housing to as much as 79% of their income for households below the federal poverty level.
Households of all Ethnicities Struggle, but Rate is Higher for Latino and African Americans: Over 1.5 million Latino households are estimated to fall below the Real Cost Measure compared to over 1 million white households, 429,000, Asian American households, and 269,000 African-American households
Single Mothers: Over 7 in 10 single mothers in California (72%) fall below the Real Cost Measure
As Educational Attainment Increases, rate of Struggling Households Falls: Nearly three-fourths of California householders without a high school diploma or equivalent (71%) fall below the Real Cost Measure compared to those with at least a high school diploma (48%), at least some college education (33%), and at least a bachelor’s degree (15%)
6 in 10 Young Children Live in Struggling Households: 45% of households led by a person born outside the U.S. are below the Real Cost Measure, and that number rises to 63% when the householder is not a citizen. Households led by Latino non-citizens struggle most, especially if the household does not include someone over 14 years of age who speaks English well (82% below the Real Cost Measure).
Seniors: Nearly 1 in 3 seniors struggle to meet basic needs (29%) according to the Elder Index, a measure by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research

Click here to read the full report.

Household Budgets

Thanks to a partnership with Benefit Kitchen, we have produced a new design for our household budgets. Calculated for the year 2016, anyone in California can select the county they live in and enter the number of people in their household by age to determine the average costs of housing, food, heath care, child care, transportation and other basic needs.

Click here to explore our Household Budgets.

Interactive Maps

We are glad to offer interactive maps at the county and neighborhood level. These interactive maps give us the ability to view what the Real Cost Measure looks like throughout California, in addition to housing burden (the percentage of families pay at least 30% of their income on housing), and median household income.

Click here to explore our Neighborhood Maps.

Click here to explore our County Maps.

County Profiles

These one-page county profiles display rich information on The Real Cost Measure such as the average household budget for two adults, one infant, and one school-aged child, and demographic information on educational attainment, single mothers, ethnicity, citizenship and more.

Click here to explore our County Profiles.

Report Methodology

Our report methodology summarizes how the Real Cost Measure is calculated. We used 2014-2016 American Community Survey data from the United States Census Bureau for demographic analysis and based our household budgets on various data sources using 2016 data.

Click here to read our Report Methodology.

Public Data Set

To help users of the Real Cost Measure access and utilize data beyond the report, we are glad to offer a downloadable public data set in Microsoft Excel format. Please be so kind to attribute United Ways of California on report citations. Citation guidance is provide at the top of the document.

Click here to download our Public Data Set.

Interview and Speaker Requests

To schedule an interview with one of the report authors or to inquire about local speaking opportunities on the Real Cost Measure, please contact Maryrose McMahon, Program Assistant at United Ways of California, at 877.355.8922 x6 or via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..