Almost 40 percent of Americans struggle to pay for basic necessities like housing and food.

According to a new study from the Urban Institute , 39.4 percent of adults reported that they struggled to afford at least one basic need for health care, housing, utilities or food in 2017. These struggles did not just affect adults with lower incomes, they extended to higher-income families and to families with and without employed members.

Michael Karpman, a research associate at the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center and a co-author of the study, told CBS News. that this illustrates that there "is no guarantee" that a middle-class income protects people from financial struggle.

"A lot of people are looking at the fact that wages aren't keeping up with household costs as one reason families are having difficulty making ends meet," Karpman told CBS.

Researchers found that adults were more likely to report they struggled if they were in fair or poor health or if they had multiple chronic health conditions. Financial hardships were more prevalent for adults who are younger – 18 to 34 years old – female, black, Hispanic, less educated and living with children.

Additionally, if someone reported they struggled with one financial hardship, they were more likely to struggle with another. Among adults struggling to afford one basic need, 60.2 percent reported that they struggled affording two or more, and 34.7 reported that they struggled with three or more, according to the study.

Adults struggled with affording food the most, with 23.3 percent reporting that their households had been food insecure within the past 12 months. Eighteen percent of adults said they had problems paying family medical bills, and 17.8 percent said they went without medical care because of the costs.

Karpman told CBS that, although families may have health insurance, high deductibles "leave them facing high costs."

When it comes to housing security, about 10 percent reported that they could not pay the full amount of rent or mortgage or their payment was late. Thirteen percent said they missed a utility bill and about 1 percent of adults were evicted or forced to move.

Although making ends meet was hardest in families without any working adults, at 55.7 percent, 35 percent of households with at least one working adult also reported difficulty meeting at least one basic necessity. At 20 percent, that basic need was most commonly food. Food insecurity jumped to 40 percent in households without any working adults.

Researchers state that, although economic growth and low unemployment are "critical to reducing material hardship," they "alone do not ensure everyone can meet their basic needs."

"I hope that people will see," Karpman told CBS, "that even though we're in a relatively healthy economy, a lot of families are still having difficulty meeting their basic needs for food, housing and health care."