Scorecard: How Families are Faring in Mississippi

January 31st, 2013

Yesterday, the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) released its 2013 Assets & Opportunity Scorecard, which comprehensively examines how American households are faring in all 50 states and the District of Columbia in terms of their overall financial security. The 2013 Scorecard evidences a lingering problem for households today – while some progress has been made in ensuring financial security, a growing number (43.9 percent) of American families are living in liquid asset poverty, meaning they lack the means to meet their expenses for three months should a job loss or other emergency leave them without their primary source of income. In Mississippi, nearly three in five (57.7 percent) residents live in liquid asset poverty. See Chart.

In addition to this troubling statistic, the Scorecard ranks each state and the District of Columbia on 69 different outcome measures. Some of the clearest areas of improvement for Mississippi include income poverty, unbanked households and consumers with subprime credit, where the state has the worst rates in the nation. However, there are several bright spots for the state. Mississippi has the 7^th lowest level of credit card debt, with an average of $6,847 per borrower. Mississippi also ranks 11^th for its homeownership rate and 10^th in affordability of homes.

Although our state does not perform well in each category, that is not to suggest that there are not clear, manageable steps we can take to improve the financial opportunities afforded to families across the state. For example, to reduce high income and asset poverty and improve credit scores, Mississippi can adopt tax credits so low-income families have more income to pay down debt and save, and create a Children’s Savings Account program. To protect unbanked and underbanked households from predatory financial products, Mississippi can implement enhanced consumer protections around a number of alternative financial services.

Over the next several months, MEPC will be sharing information about the Scorecard and promoting policy options for building assets among low-wealth families.
Source: Corporation for Enterprise Development, Assets and Opportunity Scorecard, 2013.