Mark R. Rank of Washington University in St. Louis and Tom Hirschl of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., also found two-thirds of Americans between the ages of 20 and 65 will, at some point, turn to a welfare program such as food stamps.

Forty percent of U.S. adults will use a welfare program in five or more separate years during their working age adulthood, the study says.

Preliminary data analysis indicates that up to one-half of all Americans do not have enough liquid assets to keep them out of poverty for three months should they suddenly lose their job.

Rank estimates that by age 40, 83 percent of U.S. adults have purchased a home -- but nearly 40 percent of these homeowners will lose their homeowner status within 10 years of the time of purchase.