Using 211 Data to Gauge Eighth District Economic Conditions

In 2025, electricity prices rose, trade policy shifted, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits were paused, and tornadoes hit St. Louis and other Eighth Federal Reserve District communities.The Eighth District covers all of Arkansas, most of Missouri, and parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. What was the economic experience of Eighth District households last year in light of these and other events?

First, consider that some households began 2025 already under financial strain. For example, in 2024, 1 in 3 Americans could not cover a $400 emergency expense. Other data suggest that, as of 2023, 40% of U.S. households had little or no discretionary income. Additionally, 42% of households that year either lived below the federal poverty level or were ALICE, which stands for asset-limited and income-constrained but employed. ALICE households earn above the poverty line but are unable to cover the cost of basics in a survival budget. With the labor market softening, having the most accurate and current information is important.

To get a more “real-time” snapshot of how natural disasters and the business cycle affect local communities, this blog post uses data on 211 calls to describe households’ economic health in certain Eighth District states. Supported by the United Way, 211 is a free, confidential service that connects people in need to programs and resources.About 80% of the nearly 200 211 call centers across the U.S. are operated or funded in part by local United Way organizations and United Way state associations. Governments, service providers, philanthropies, financial institutions and academic institutions use the data.

A Closer Look at 211 Call Data

The 211 Counts dashboards for Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee allow us to construct a monthly dataset of referrals for assistance with housing, utilities, food, transportation, health care and disaster relief.Because data for Mississippi were not available and data for Indiana were limited, we omitted both of these Eighth District states from our analysis. We measured the 12-month percent change for each month in 2025 across these six categories. Data were recorded at the “request” level, but there could be multiple types of assistance sought in a single call. Call volumes capture the household impact of job loss, higher price levels, natural disasters and policy changes.

Over the past two years, the annual number of 211 calls made in Eighth District states ranged from a low of 24,976 in Arkansas (in 2024) to a high of almost 250,000 in Missouri (in both 2024 and 2025). Because the United Way closely supports 211 services, how active the organization is in a state—as well as the capacity of its partner organizations—may, in part, affect call volumes. In addition, some United Way organizations may not report numbers to the 211 Counts dashboard. Furthermore, some households may choose not to use 211 out of fear of stigma, while frequent 211 callers may require significant amounts of assistance. Overall, it is likely our estimates understate the need that exists.

Findings from 211 Call Data

Housing

Housing requests comprise referrals for shelters, low-cost housing, home repair, rental and mortgage assistance, and landlord issues. Housing request patterns suggest state-specific housing challenges. (See the figure below.) Increased need for housing may be related to homes destroyed in natural disasters. Kentucky and Tennessee showed substantial increases. Increases in Missouri, when they occurred, were more moderate. These states had major tornadoes in 2025. Conversely, Illinois and Arkansas primarily show declines in referrals in 2025 compared with those in the same month a year earlier. Some states saw consistent decreases during the late spring and early summer months.

Utilities

Utilities capture referrals for assistance with electric, gas, water, trash collection, and phone or internet services. Distinct patterns appear across the five Eighth District states we examined. Kentucky and Tennessee saw repeated increases in 2025 requests for referrals relative to those in 2024. (See the following figure.) Conversely, request volume in Illinois fell during 10 months of the year, while Missouri showed reductions in seven months. Arkansas exhibited decreased 211 service utilization across all seven months for which we have data.

Food

Food-related requests include referrals for help in buying food and locating food pantries or soup kitchens and meals-to-go. The patterns in the food referral data may be due to the 2025 government shutdown and the resulting deferment of federal employees’ pay and the temporary suspension of SNAP benefits. Assistance requests rose in October, followed by more-substantial increases in November. (See the next figure.) This pattern did not persist in December; however, an increase in requests may emerge in early 2026 when SNAP eligibility changes (PDF) go into effect.

Transportation

Referrals for transportation indicate a need for assistance with medical and public transportation, vehicles, long-distance travel, ride share services and bike programs. Transportation 211 requests in Missouri increased from their 2024 levels in every month through July. (See the figure below.) In Kentucky, requests were elevated in all 12 months. These results suggest notable changes in transportation resource utilization patterns. Kentucky’s increased need may have been due to severe April 2025 storms.

Health Care

Health care requests reflect referrals around assistance with health insurance, medical expenses, medical providers, dental and eye care, prescription medications, and nursing home or adult care. On average, health care requests compared with those in the previous year declined in Arkansas, Illinois and Tennessee but rose in Kentucky and Missouri. (See the following figure.)

Disaster Relief

Eighth District states experienced increased need following major natural disasters in 2025, with analysis revealing a March-June surge in requests for disaster-related 211 referrals. (See the next figure.) April represented the peak response period.

Missouri faced a progressive sequence of natural disasters, beginning with tornadoes, high winds and wildfires in March and followed by an EF3 tornado in St. Louis in May, with effects continuing into June. These events resulted in a surge of requests compared with the same months in 2024. Severe weather systems affected Arkansas and Kentucky in April, producing large storms, tornadoes and flooding. Shortly after these events, emergency-related 211 requests for assistance increased by 3,000% in Kentucky and by an even larger amount in Arkansas. The jumps in requests for help were so large partly because 2024 call volumes in this category were small. While the timing seems to indicate a link, we were unable to map calls to specific disasters.

Conclusions

The 211 data have strengths. They provide real-time snapshots of community health, allow researchers to observe changes over time, and serve as an early indicator of the impact of shocks. The data enable local analysis with sufficient sample sizes, and a growing number of organizations are utilizing them.

The two years of data do a good job of capturing the timing of communities’ increased need following tornadoes and other natural disasters. However, we do not see a pattern in the data that suggests the weakening labor market triggered greater need. This could be due to economic conditions in Eighth District states having changed little. For example, the unemployment rate ticked up from 4.0% in January 2024 to 4.1% in December 2025.

There are, however, limitations. The data may underestimate community needs, and reporting practices can vary across states. The data exclude instances when people access resources directly, and as non-survey-based data, they require interpretation in conjunction with other sources. Importantly, the effectiveness of community responses to referral calls is not measured.

Notes

1. The Eighth District covers all of Arkansas, most of Missouri, and parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee.
2. About 80% of the nearly 200 211 call centers across the U.S. are operated or funded in part by local United Way organizations and United Way state associations.
3. Because data for Mississippi were not available and data for Indiana were limited, we omitted both of these Eighth District states from our analysis.