New United Way Report Shows Financial Hardship Persists for Nearly Half of Greater Lehigh Valley Households
Approximately 124,000 households in the Greater Lehigh Valley, or 41%, are struggling to afford basic needs like housing, childcare, food and transportation. This includes 45,208 households in Lehigh County, 48,191 in Northampton County and 10,892 in Carbon County, according to the latest United Way ALICE report.
The newly released 2025 State of ALICE in Pennsylvania report from United Way of Pennsylvania and United For ALICE reveals that essential costs in our region continue to outpace wages, placing even working families under strain.
According to the annual Household Survival Budget for a family of four (two adults, one infant, one preschooler), ALICE households continue to earn well below what’s needed to cover even the most basic expenses. In 2023, the survival budgets were:
- $97,824 in Northampton County (down from $100,296 in 2022)
- $96,996 in Lehigh County (down from $98,664)
- $83,040 in Carbon County (down from $86,448)
Rising housing and food costs continue to strain working families, especially as wages in many of the region’s most common occupations remain below $20 per hour.
Across Pennsylvania, over 2.1 million households live below the ALICE Threshold, including nearly 1.5 million working ALICE households and more than 658,000 living in poverty.
As part of our Community Stability bold goal, United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley continues working with partners to ensure all families have access to the resources they need to survive today and thrive tomorrow.
Detailed data sheets about Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties are available at www.unitedwayglv.org/ALICE.
To read the update and access online, interactive dashboards that provide data on financial hardship at the state, county and local levels, visit UnitedForALICE.org/Pennsylvania.