Who is ALICE®?
ALICE® is an acronym that stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. It refers to households that earn above the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) but cannot afford the basic cost of living in their county. Despite struggling to make ends meet, ALICE® households often do not qualify for public assistance.
ALICE® in the Crosscurrents: An Update on Financial Hardship in Indiana is brought to you by Indiana United Ways and United Way of Central Indiana in partnership with United for ALICE®, a driver of innovative research and action around financial hardship for ALICE® households.
To create the ALICE® report, a team of researchers worked with a research advisory committee composed of experts from the Family and Social Services Administration (Indiana 211), Purpose of Life Ministries, the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Public Policy Institute at Indiana University Bloomington, the Indiana Community Action Poverty Institute, the Indiana State University Blumberg Center, SBC Global, Saath Partners, Sivic Solutions Group, the Polis Center at Indiana University Indianapolis, and Ascentra Strategies.
The ALICE® Household Survival Budget is the foundation of the ALICE® research. This budget calculates the bare minimum cost of the household basics needed to live and work in the modern economy by household composition, in every county.
Key Insights from ALICE® 2026 Update
- In 2024, over one million households (1,052,775, 38%) across Indiana were below the ALICE® Threshold, with 12% of households having income below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) and an additional 26% with incomes above the FPL but below the real cost to meet their basic needs in Indiana.
- On average, the ALICE® Household Survival Budget in Indiana, which reflects the bare minimum cost of household necessities (food, housing, healthcare, childcare, transportation, technology) was $28,764 for a single adult ($14.38/hour) and $74,028 for a family of four with two adults, an infant, and a preschooler ($37.01/hour) in 2024.
- In contrast, the FPL (which is used to qualify families for social supports) is set at $31,200 for a family of four, and $15,060 for a single adult household all all areas of the state, leaving nearly two times as many families struggling to make ends meet despite working hard.
Do I Know Someone Who is ALICE®?
- Around 1 in 2 workers in these common occupations struggle to meet their basic needs: waiters and waitresses (54%), cashiers (46%), cooks (45%), nursing assistants (44%), and teaching assistants (41%). Around 1 in 3 people working as janitors and building cleaners (32%) and laborers or freight, stock, and materials movers (31%) struggled to meet their needs. Many of these workers are considered “essential workers” and are our neighbors, family members, and friends.
- Households disproportionately affected include those headed by people under the age of 25 (62%) and age 65 or older (50%), single-parent households (female-headed 72%, male headed 49%), and Black (55%), Hispanic (43%), multiracial (43%), and American Indian/Alaska Native (46%) households. White households represent the highest number of households affected by financial hardship, but the overall rate of hardship is lower (36%) among this group.
- The cost of essentials has continued to outpace wages.
Download Your County’s ALICE® Report
Learn More About ALICE®
Explore extensive data about ALICE® households or create regional level profiles using the interactive maps and dashboards at unitedforalice.org/indiana.
Find ALICE® data by Legislative District
United For ALICE Legislative District Tool