ACLI Financial Resilience Index

chart_thumbnail_fri_intro_graphic_updated

The ACLI Financial Resilience Index measures the middle-class’ ability to manage life’s challenges and plan for a stable financial future.

Released quarterly, the ACLI Financial Resilience Index measures the direction and magnitude of middle-class financial resilience by tracking 26 different variables that represent important middle-class cost pressures and financial resources.

The Headline Index is composed of a Cost Resilience Index and a Resource Resilience Index:

The Cost Resilience Index measures the ability to afford modest luxuries without trading off the essentials and to afford life-stage appropriate care and education.

The Resource Resilience Index measures the ability to handle unexpected expenses and sustain a quality of life, and the ability to save and live well in retirement.

This composition frames financial resilience as the interaction of cost pressures and financial resources and provides insight into the specific underlying factors that drive changes in middle-class financial resilience. Consumer survey findings (featured in the full index and analysis) offer a snapshot as to how middle-class households are feeling.

OCTOBER 2025 INDEX

Middle-class financial resilience is holding steady, but improvement has slowed over the past year.

The Headline Index was 7.3 in Q2 2025, inching up 2 points from Q1 but down 21 points from a year ago. Middle-class financial resilience remains largely unchanged at just above historical norms.

The Resource Resilience Index improved due to a rebound in asset growth.

The Cost Resilience Index increased only marginally but improved for the tenth quarter in a row.

The companion survey found that half (50%) of middle-class households are concerned about their ability to sustainably afford daily essentials over the next year.

acli_fri_october2025_headlineindex

Latest Index & Analysis

 October 2025 10/08/25

Methodology

Our Methodology

Request for Information

Contact: Whit Cornman, Senior Director, Media Relations, ACLI

Featured Resources