Who Has a Bank Account and Who Doesn't: 1977 and 1989

Using data from the 1977 Consumer Credit Survey and from the 1989 Survey of Consumer Finances, we investigate changes in the percentage of households with deposit accounts. We find that, among households earning $84,000 or less in 1991 prices, the percentage of households with deposit accounts fell from 90.5 percent in 1977 to 86.5 percent in 1989. For households earning $12,000 or less, the percentage with deposit accounts fell from 70.3 percent to 59.2 percent. Although changes in bank policies may have contributed to these trends, socioeconomic changes in the population alone can explain the decline.