Twelve doors a country
Each edition walks one country as twelve homes. Eight lives are the same in all six, so the renter, the mortgage holder and the pensioner can be read across borders. Four are local to that country.
Six developed economies, door by door
Banked,
but not secure.
Almost every adult in these six countries has a bank account. What sorts their safety net is the roof. In the United States, 60 in 100 renters would not cover a $400 emergency with cash or its equivalent; among those who own outright, 18.
Home Truths goes door to door to ask why: who owns and who rents, what year you were born into, and what is left once the bills are paid. See the gap in all six.
The street: six front doors
The streetEvery door is open- AustraliaFair GoA country that promised everyone a decent chance, and now asks what year you were born.9.3 million households, 2021Come in
- United StatesKitchen TableWhere the sums get done at the kitchen table, and more than a third of adults would not cover a $400 emergency with cash or its equivalent.134.1 million households, 2025Come in
- United KingdomMustn't GrumbleWhere the typical household that owns outright holds £647,400, and the typical household that rents holds £40,800.29.0 million households, 2025Come in
- GermanyKassensturzThe rich country that rents: 58 in 100 households are tenants, and the typical one holds €18,300.41.1 million households, 2025Come in
- CanadaTrue NorthThe posted five year mortgage rate fell from 18% in 1981 to 3% in 2021, and sits near 5% now. Ownership among households in their early thirties fell too.15.0 million households, 2021Come in
- SingaporeCan or Not?91 in 100 resident households own their home. Beside every 100 residents live 47 people on passes, outside that count.1.5 million resident households, 2025Come in
Households: the latest official count or estimate from each national statistics office. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021 Census QuickStats; US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2025 1-year, table B11001; Office for National Statistics, Families and households in the UK: 2025, table 5; Destatis, households table (Mikrozensus); Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2021; Singapore Department of Statistics, table C020144.
The home truth
The roof divides more than the border.
Six rich countries differ less from each other than owners differ from renters inside any one of them.
Side by side
One measure, six countries.
Pick a measure. Every bar carries its year and its source, and where countries count things differently the board says so.
Three sites, twelve countries
Access was solved. Security was only half solved.
How to read it
The household is the unit. The home is the object.
A source and a grade
Every number carries its source and a confidence grade: H high, M medium, L low, U unverified. Lives are overlapping archetypes, not a census.
Three money lines
Rich countries divide less on whether people have an account and more on the roof over their head, the year they were born, and the size of their buffer. Each edition follows those three lines.
Inside each edition