A new study concludes 37 percent of Iowa households could not afford to pay monthly bills that cover the basic necessities of life in 2016. The report identified 12 percent of Iowans living below the poverty line and another 25 percent of working Iowans living paycheck-to-paycheck. Shane Orr, executive director of United Way of Muscatine, is chairman of the United Ways of Iowa board of directors, the group that commissioned the report.

Iowans who are identified as “income constrained” live in both urban and rural Iowa. More than half the residents of southern Iowa’s Decatur County are unable to afford basic necessities according to Stephanie Hoopes, the former Rutgers University professor who did the research.

Hoopes says working Iowans who are employed, but have few assets and little to no savings are “one emergency away from falling into poverty