how many people are underbanked in the u s 
according to a 2021 federal reserve frb report on the economic well being of u s households in 2020 13 of adults in the u s were underbanked while 5 were unbanked 2 those results marked an improvement on 2018 when the frb found that 16 of u s adults were underbanked and 6 were unbanked 1the federal deposit insurance corporation fdic runs its own survey on how households use banking services the fdic revealed that an estimated 5 4 of u s households were unbanked in 2019 meaning that 94 6 of u s households had at least a checking or savings account 3in its 2019 report the fdic broke down the financial services activities of the population but unlike in previous years stopped short of providing a specific percentage figure of underbanked households 4 in 2017 the government agency put its estimate of underbanked at 48 9 million adults or 18 7 of u s households down from 19 9 in 2015 5the frb and the fdic s numbers cannot be directly compared as they define the underbanked somewhat differently 6who are the underbanked the frb has stated that both the unbanked and underbanked are more likely to have low income less education or be in a racial or ethnic minority group 1 among the underbanked 21 had a family income of under 25 000 vs 5 with incomes over 100 000 and 24 didn t have a high school degree vs 8 with a bachelor s degree or more in terms of race ethnicity 27 of blacks and 21 of latinx were underbanked vs 9 of whites 2