A little more than a quarter of Americans are ill-prepared when it comes to leaning on their personal finances in the event of an crisis, with 26% saying they have no emergency savings, according to recent survey data from Bankrate.

Each month, Bankrate surveys how Americans feel about their personal finances compared with how they felt 12 months ago. Like past surveys, the company’s June 2014 Financial Security Index gauges responses across a variety of topics, including respondents feel about their savings and overall financial situation, among other vital financial matters.

The 26% of the 1,004 adults Bankrate surveyed who claimed to have no emergency savings represented the greatest share of respondents, with those who have less than three month’s expenses saved coming in at a close second (24%). 

Bankrate identified emergency savings as money that is readily available in either a checking account, savings account or money market.

Those with enough savings to cover six or more months’ expenses represented 23%, while 17% said they have enough funds to cover three to five months of expenses and 9% claimed they did not know. 

Older adults appeared to be more financially prepared in their emergency savings than their younger counterparts.

Of total respondents, retirees were more than twice as likely (36%) to have saved at least six month’s of expenses compared to adults aged 18-29 (16%).

On the topic of debt, 26% of those nearing retirement said they were “more comfortable” with the amount of debt they have now than they were 12 months ago, compared with 17% of those who were already of retirement age. 

The split between working adults and those already retired widened when it came to the topic of how respondents feel about their overall financial situations. 

Twice as many people still in the workforce (36%) said they felt “better” about their financial situation in June, while only 18% of retirees felt similarly.

View the Bankrate data.

Written by Jason Oliva