Financial Health Barometer
Trend Over Time
State Rankings
| Rank | State | Anxiety ↕ | Food ↕ | Housing ↕ | Afford ↕ |
|---|
Researcher Tools
Methodology & Data Dictionary
WhitepaperThe Financial Health Barometer aggregates official government statistics with real-time volatility data. Our composite indices are calculated daily using the following official datasets:
| Variable | Source | Dataset / Frequency | Use in Index |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unemployment Rate | Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) | LAUS / Monthly | Primary driver for Financial Anxiety. Baseline set at 3.5%. |
| Median Rent-to-Income | Census Bureau | ACS 1-Year Estimates (Table B25071) / Annual | Primary driver for Housing Stress. State-level median of gross rent as a share of household income. |
| Fair Market Rent | HUD (Dept. of Housing) | FMR API (2-BR median) / Annual | Relative cost comparison in Housing Stress. |
| Poverty Rate | Census Bureau | SAIPE / Annual | Primary driver for Food Insecurity. |
| Housing Price Index | FRED (St. Louis Fed) | FHFA All-Transactions Index / Quarterly | Measures price volatility for Housing Stress. |
| Search Trends | Google Health Trends API (exclusive) | Probability-scaled search volume / Daily | Real-time "Volatility Boost" (+0–10 pts). Returns absolute search probabilities. |
| Housing Cost Burden | Harvard JCHS | State of the Nation's Housing 2025 / Annual | Calibration source for Housing Stress. |
Each indicator combines a government data source with a base index, scaling factor, and regional adjustment:
- Financial Anxiety = (120 + (Unemployment Rate - 3.5%) × 18) × Regional Multiplier + Trends Boost
- Food Insecurity = (85 + (Poverty Rate - 10%) × 6) × Regional Multiplier + Trends Boost
- Housing Stress = (100 + Rent Burden Score + FMR Score + HPI Score) × Regional Multiplier + Trends Boost
- Affordability = (Housing Stress × 0.60 + Food Insecurity × 0.40) + Trends Boost
Housing sub-scores: Rent Burden Score = (MedianRentRatio - 25%) × 3; FMR Score = (State FMR / National Avg FMR - 1) × 40; HPI Score = Housing Price Change % × 2.
Primary sources: Census ACS B25071, HUD FMR API, FRED HPI. Fallback: Harvard JCHS 2025.
The base index values (120 for Financial Anxiety, 85 for Food Insecurity, 100 for Housing Stress) are chosen to place typical economic conditions in the "Moderate" range.
Regional Multipliers (0.85–1.35×) are applied to each state based on structural economic factors (cost of living, historical poverty rates, labor market conditions).
Health Trends API Boost (+0–10 pts): FinMango has exclusive access to the Google Health Trends API, which returns absolute search probabilities (P(term) × 10,000,000) rather than the relative 0–100 scale on the public Google Trends website. The raw API value is used directly as the boost (capped at 10 pts).
Indices are relative measures of economic stress, scaled 0–200:
- < 90 (Green): Low Stress / Stable
- 90–120 (Yellow): Moderate Stress
- 120–150 (Orange): Elevated Stress — Warning Signs
- > 150 (Red): Crisis Level — Immediate Attention Needed
The historical trend chart uses data from the Google Health Trends API to show how stress indicators have changed over time. Historical values are scaled so that the most recent month equals today's composite index, preserving the trend shape.
Because search data is inherently volatile, month-to-month fluctuations may be large — focus on longer-term direction rather than individual data points.
The indices utilize a Heuristic Stress Model to quantify economic pressure, standardizing disparate metrics into a unified 0–200 stress index.
Researcher Note: Composite indices are heuristic — designed for relative comparison between states, not as absolute measures. For econometric modeling, use the raw underlying metrics (provided in the full CSV export).
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