Stable, but Strained: The Federal Reserve’s 2025 Portrait of American Households

Hello readers,

Below we have summarized some highlights from the Federal Reserve’s SHED (Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking) Report from 2025, an annual survey examining the financial condition of American households. First launched in 2013, it tracks issues such as employment, inflation, debt, savings, housing costs, and financial hardship, attempting to provide a broad snapshot of how Americans are experiencing the economy beyond headline indicators like GDP or unemployment.

We do want to mention that there is an enormous amount of information in the report itself, so this summary is non-exhaustive. We highly recommend checking out the report itself if you’re curious.

To start, last year’s report paints a picture of an American public that is financially stable on the surface but increasingly strained underneath. While many of the headline numbers remained similar to 2024, the report suggests that the post-pandemic recovery has largely stalled, with se…