Oh wow that’s wild

Edit: No, that doesn’t seem to be the case. I’m seeing multiple sources (go banking, bankrate, Princeton) all corroborating the lack of savings. It looks like bankrate does the surveys annually too: https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/emergency-savings-report

Bankrate doesn’t ask the savings number directly so that’s maybe what you were seeing, but go banking does:

https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-money/savings-advice/nearly-half-of-americans-have-less-than-500-in-savings-how-you-can-beat-trend/

“Methodology: GOBankingRates surveyed 1,002 Americans aged 18 and older from across the country on between January 30 and February 1, 2023, asking six different questions: (1) How much savings do you have?; …”