New Hampshirites report that lack of financial knowledge carries a high cost, according to the NFEC’s most recent survey. Participants across the state responded to the single question: “During the past year, about how much money do you think you lost because you lacked knowledge about personal finances?” The results are shown below. Since 2017, the NFEC has conducted this annual survey, consistently revealing that the average individual cost of financial illiteracy approaches or exceeds $1,000 per person – with estimated national losses reaching into the hundreds of billions of dollars each year, and losses in the hundreds of millions across New Hampshire.

Current measures of financial vulnerability are expressed in terms of food and housing insecurity. Feeding America is a nonprofit agency that tracks hunger across the United States and reports the data at the state level. As of their most recent report, one in every nine New Hampshire residents is facing hunger – a total of 149,820 people (10.5%), of whom 36,160 are children. The organization estimates that an additional $105 million would be the minimum needed each year to meet the food needs of these hungry people.

Housing insecurity affects 2,245 New Hampshirites as of 2024, as reported by the World Population Review (WPR). That number gives the Granite State a homeless rate of 16%, a very slight decrease of –0.01% since 2007. WPR measures total homeless populations in two primary groups: adults or youths who live by themselves, and ones who live in family groups. More than half a million people currently are experiencing homelessness across the U.S.