About half of Georgia families cannot cover the cost of basic necessities in 2024, with even working households above the federal poverty line falling short. A United Way study found 44% of Georgia households fell below its ALICE Threshold, the share that earn too little to afford housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, and technology. A family of four in Georgia needs $77,568 a year to make the essentials, the report said, and prices across the country reaccelerated in May.
Figures released this month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show U.S. consumer prices rose 4.2% over the year ending in May, the fastest annual pace in three years. Energy drove the bulk of the move, with gasoline up 40.5% and the broader energy index up 23.5%. Food and shelter each climbed more slowly than headline inflation but still added to the squeeze. The story was first reported by WABE through a partnership with The Current, putting Georgia near the bottom of states on affordability.
What the ALICE Budget Actually Counts
United Way’s ALICE program, short for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, tracks households that earn more than the federal poverty line but still cannot afford a basic cost-of-living budget in their county. The 2024 Georgia report counted 4,141,265 households statewide. Of those, 13%, or 543,142, were below the federal poverty level, and another 30%, or 1,262,000, were classified as ALICE. Combining those two groups, 44% of all Georgia households, or 1,805,142 families, were below the ALICE Threshold. The data runs through 2024, the latest available, and United Way flags that the numbers do not yet reflect any policy or funding changes since then.
The ALICE Household Survival Budget prices a specific basket each year: housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, and a technology line, plus taxes. The basket runs $33,036 a year for a single adult in Georgia. For a family of four with two adults, an infant, and a preschooler, it runs $77,568, well above the federal poverty level of $15,060 for an individual and $31,200 for a family of four.
The gap between the federal poverty line and a real survival budget is where most working-poor households in the state sit. Costs also vary sharply by county. For a family of four, the budget is highest in Fulton County and lowest in Emanuel County, and for a single adult, the high is Forsyth County and the low is Upson County. The methodology draws on the American Community Survey and the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, and United Way treats the figures as a baseline for local conversations rather than a current snapshot.
Energy Now Accounts for Most of the Pain
The May 2026 CPI release, published June 10 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, found consumer prices up 4.2% over the prior 12 months, the fastest annual pace in three years. Energy alone rose 23.5% over the same span, and the energy index accounted for over sixty percent of the monthly all-items increase. Gasoline specifically climbed 40.5% year over year, after a 7.0% jump in May alone.
| Category | 12-month change, May 2026 | Monthly change, May 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| All items | 4.2% | 0.5% |
| Food | 3.1% | 0.2% |
| Food at home | 2.7% | 0.1% |
| Shelter | 3.4% | 0.3% |
| Energy | 23.5% | 3.9% |
| Gasoline (all types) | 40.5% | 7.0% |
| Fuel oil | 58.9% | 3.8% |
| Electricity | 5.9% | 0.6% |
| Utility (piped) gas service | 3.0% | -0.5% |
| All items less food and energy | 2.9% | 0.2% |
Food at home rose 2.7% over the year, with fruits and vegetables up 6.1% and nonalcoholic beverages up 5.8%. Shelter, the largest single weight in the CPI, climbed 3.4%. The index for all items less food and energy, the so-called core rate, rose 2.9% over the year. The CPI-W, the wage-earner version of the index that tracks working households more closely, climbed 4.4% over the same span.
Energy alone accounted for over sixty percent of the monthly all-items increase in May. Gasoline at 40.5% year over year is the largest single line item in that move.
Why Gasoline Hurts Georgia More Than Most
Georgia is a car-dependent state. Public transit outside metro Atlanta is thin, and the state’s suburban and rural counties rely heavily on cars. The 40.5% year-over-year surge in gasoline, captured in the May CPI release, magnifies the impact of any cost-of-living increase on working families in the state. For households already short on the ALICE budget, the extra dollars at the pump come out of money earmarked for housing or food.
We’ve seen a gas price increase … in the last year for like 40%. So it’s felt a little more acutely here in that respect because we don’t have good, extensive public transit.
Saloni Firasta-Vastani, a lecturer at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, framed it that way in an interview with WABE. Her point: in states with strong transit networks, commuters can absorb a fuel spike by switching modes; in Georgia, that option barely exists. The May CPI release backs her up, with gasoline up 7.0% in May alone and fuel oil up 58.9% over the year.
Add rising electricity, up 5.9% year over year, and a 3.0% climb in piped natural gas to the 7.0% monthly gasoline jump. Three utility categories now run above the headline inflation rate of 4.2%.
She recommends discount grocery stores and dedicated home-cooking days as practical short-term steps. Her framing fits the ALICE picture, where every category of the survival budget rises at once. The structural levers sit further out: wages, transit, housing. the May 2026 CPI release lays out the gasoline, energy, and shelter numbers in full.
Which Households Carry the Heaviest Load
The hardship does not spread evenly across Georgia. United Way’s ALICE data shows clear gaps between demographic groups, with several running well above the statewide share. Single-parent households, in particular, cluster near the top of the hardship list.
- 54% of Black households below the ALICE Threshold
- 51% of Hispanic households
- 76% of single-female-headed households
- 58% of single-male-headed households
- 70% of households headed by someone under 25
- 53% of households headed by someone 65 or older
- 51% of rural households
United Way of Greater Atlanta has stressed that the hardship reaches every demographic group in the state, not just the most exposed ones. The pattern tracks long-running disparities in work, housing, education, and access to community resources that the report ties to longstanding policies.
Between 2010 and 2024, the report flagged a rise in the total number of households headed by someone 65 or older, and a parallel rise in the number of those households below the threshold. The latest two-year window showed a slight decline. United Way attributes the pattern to longstanding policies and discriminatory practices in work, housing, education, and community resources.
By Industry and Occupation
The ALICE data also maps hardship to industry and occupation. Of the ten largest industry sectors in Georgia by total workers, accommodation and food services posted the highest share of workers in households below the threshold. By occupation, two of the state’s most common jobs sit near the top of the hardship list. The CPI table above shows how each cost line in the ALICE basket has moved since the data was collected. Service-sector workers absorb those moves on already-stretched household budgets.
- 43% of Accommodation and Food Services workers in households below the ALICE Threshold
- 53% of cashiers
- 48% of cooks
Local food-growing initiatives are catching on as a way to ease grocery pressure. Albany families turning to urban gardens to cut food costs shows one such effort. The structural levers, wages, transit, housing, sit further out from the working households the ALICE data tracks.
What the 2024 Baseline Leaves Out
One caveat shapes every number above. The ALICE data stops at 2024, the latest available. United Way notes that the income figures draw from the American Community Survey and carry the survey’s margin of error, and that the numbers do not capture any policy or funding shifts since 2024. That matters because the May 2026 CPI release, with energy up 23.5% over the year, sits well outside the 2024 baseline.
The 2024 survival budget for a family of four was already a stretch for most Georgia working households. The May 2026 CPI implies the survival line has moved since then, even before the next ALICE update. For households sitting on the edge of that line, the 2024 numbers understate the current gap.
United Way’s role is to put a number on what ‘barely getting by’ looks like in the state, and the May CPI numbers describe a country where ‘barely’ has gotten harder over the past twelve months. WABE reported that even with the gap, all demographic groups in the state are touched by it. The methodology draws on the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, alongside the ACS, to size the household-level picture. ALICE methodology and 2024 Georgia key findings and the Atlanta report on Georgia’s affordability gap cover the full data.
For households reading the data in mid-2026, the ALICE figures describe what 2024 looked like at the edge. The May CPI tells you which direction the edge has moved since. The cost is not spread evenly, with Black, Hispanic, single-parent, and rural households all running above the state average.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the ALICE report?
The ALICE report is a United Way study of households that earn above the federal poverty line but still fall short of a basic cost-of-living budget. ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. The 2024 Georgia edition placed 44% of state households below that line.
How is ‘essentials’ defined in the ALICE budget?
The Household Survival Budget covers six categories: housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, and technology, plus taxes. In 2024, the Georgia total came to $33,036 for a single adult.
Why does Georgia rank near the bottom of U.S. states on affordability?
Georgia’s 44% rate is above the national average, per United Way’s data. The state’s car-dependent geography, limited public transit outside Atlanta, and a working economy concentrated in lower-wage service jobs all contribute to the gap.
What does the May 2026 CPI report say about gasoline prices?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that gasoline prices climbed 40.5% over the 12 months ending in May 2026, with the broader energy index up 23.5% and energy overall accounting for over sixty percent of the monthly rise in headline prices.
How much does a Georgia family of four need to earn to cover basics?
The ALICE Household Survival Budget pegged the 2024 figure at $77,568 a year for a family of four with two adults, an infant, and a preschooler. The federal poverty level for the same family was $31,200.
