Underbanked Household Audiences
Households likely to be unbanked or to rely on check cashers, money orders and other nonbank services.
Across 139.6M U.S. households in the Semcasting file, 15.9M clear the high-fit bar for banking access (underbanked) (score 64+, the top 10% nationally). Among metro areas they concentrate in Brownsville, McAllen, El Paso: in the Brownsville metro area, 67.9% of households are high-fit, 5.96× the national rate. At $1.50 to $3.00 CPM, these audiences are priced at approximately 50% or less of the market rate, with results reported every week.
Use restriction. For financial-inclusion offers such as Bank On-certified accounts, second-chance checking and CRA outreach. Not for higher-priced or fee-heavy products. Fair Lending check: the high-fit share is 4.0× higher in the quarter of zips with the most minority residents than in the quarter with the fewest (correlation 0.38). That suits inclusion outreach, but any credit or fee-bearing offer built on this segment needs a disparate-impact review first.
Inclusion use only
No protected-class inputs, but concentrated in minority zips (4.0× the share in the top vs bottom quarter). Review before any credit or fee-bearing offer.
Household + zip signals
Semcasting household fields combined with Census, HMDA, IRS data for the zipcode.
State and zip indexes
Scores roll up to every U.S. state and zipcode, indexed to the national average (100).
Households national audience
- U.S. households scored
- 139.6M
- High-fit (score 64+)
- 15.9M
- Qualified (score 57+)
- 35.3M
- U.S. zipcodes indexing 120+
- 7,843
Share of households clearing the high-fit bar in the top metro area vs the nation. Qualified tier (score 57+, the top 25%): 35.3M households. Average score 46.5.
States highest high-fit share
| State | High-fit | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Mississippi | 628K | 47.2% |
| Louisiana | 777K | 38.1% |
| Oklahoma | 548K | 31.2% |
| Alabama | 717K | 30.5% |
| New Mexico | 241K | 29.0% |
| Texas | 3.5M | 28.9% |
Zipcodes highest index, 2,000+ households
| ZIP | Households | Index |
|---|---|---|
| 30901Augusta, GA | 8,490 | 171.7 |
| 78584Roma, TX | 5,288 | 170.2 |
| 39401Hattiesburg, MS | 19,723 | 168.3 |
| 77032Houston, TX | 4,627 | 168.1 |
| 31206Macon, GA | 11,378 | 168.1 |
States with at least 50,000 scored households. The largest high-fit audiences by count are in Texas (3.5M), Georgia (1.1M), Tennessee (827K), Louisiana (777K), Florida (759K).
Metro areas highest high-fit share, 100,000+ households
| Metro area | High-fit | Share | vs U.S. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brownsville-Harlingen, TX | 100K | 67.9% | 5.96× |
| McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX | 188K | 65.6% | 5.76× |
| El Paso, TX | 171K | 53.1% | 4.67× |
| Killeen-Temple, TX | 107K | 52.1% | 4.58× |
| Columbus, GA-AL | 68K | 48.4% | 4.25× |
| Macon-Bibb County, GA | 48K | 47.9% | 4.20× |
District of Columbia is a single urban core, so it is shown among states but is better compared with metro areas. The Washington metro area as a whole: 0.4% high-fit across 2.5M households.
Common questions
Where do banking access (underbanked) households concentrate?
By share of households, in the Brownsville, McAllen and El Paso metro areas. In Brownsville, 67.9% of households are high-fit, 5.96x the national rate. By count, the largest high-fit audiences are in Texas (3.5M), Georgia (1.1M), Tennessee (827K).
What does high-fit mean for banking access (underbanked)?
A score of 64 or higher, the top 10% of U.S. households for this segment. Qualified (score 57 or higher) is the top 25%. These are percentile cuts across all scored households, not a count of households that need the product.
How can the banking access (underbanked) audience be used?
Only for financial-inclusion and credit-building offers, not for higher-priced or fee-heavy products. It uses no race, sex, age, marital status, familial status or public-assistance inputs, but its high-fit share is 4.0x higher in the quarter of zips with the most minority residents than in the quarter with the fewest, so any credit or fee-bearing offer needs a disparate-impact review first.
Evidence base data behind banking access (underbanked)
- Semcasting dataSemcasting household file
- Federal statisticsCensus ZIP Code Business Patterns
- Regulatory filingFDIC Summary of Deposits
- Federal surveyFDIC Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households
- Federal statisticsCensus ACS 2024 5-year
How the score is built
Each household's banking access (underbanked) score (0 to 100) combines its own household fields (50%: lower income 50%, renting 30%, lower home value 20%) with market signals for its zipcode (50%) from Census ZIP Code Business Patterns, FDIC Summary of Deposits, FDIC Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, Census ACS 2024 5-year. Each zip signal is converted to a national percentile. State and zip indexes compare an area's average score with the U.S. average (100).
How it is confirmed
Every scored file carries a fixed 10% holdout. Results are compared with the holdout at the same score cutoffs, and the minority-zip concentration is re-checked on every delivered file before an offer runs.
What it is not
The score is not a credit decision and uses no credit bureau data. It excludes race, sex, age, marital status, familial status and receipt of public assistance, and any field that stands in for them. Zip-level targeting should still get a disparate-impact review before media or offer allocation.