Share of Total Income Accruing to Middle 60 Percent, 1967–2019. By 2019, that share had fallen to 45 percent.įigure 2. From 1967 through 1987, it exceeded one-half of the country’s income. US Census data (Figure 2) reveals how much income-including investment income and earnings-the middle 60 percent took home over time. The second common way of defining who is middle class divides the population, typically into quintiles, and examines the share of the nation’s total income taken home by the middle group (in our case, the second, third, and fourth quintiles). Getting a Smaller Slice of the Income Pie Numbers might not add to 100 because of rounding. Note: “Don’t know” was also a response option (not presented). Source: Pew Social and Demographic Trends, 2015. (Notably, Black and Latinx respondents were far less likely than White respondents to identify themselves as belonging to the middle and upper classes, a topic that deserves further attention.)įigure 1: Proportions of Self-Reporting Membership in Lower, Middle,Īnd Upper Classes, by Race and Age. As shown in Figure 1, with that adjustment, just shy of 50 percent of the population would be truly middle class. If the lower and upper middle-class people are reclassified into the lower and upper classes respectively, as Pew rearchers did in 2012, that yields a much more sensible assessment. Significant numbers of respondents say they are either “lower middle-class” or “upper middle-class.” This suggests that people believe the middle class is much broader than most researchers would demarcate it. Yet even as large majorities call themselves middle-class, they also believe that the middle class is segmented. Others define it in relation to income in the minds of many, those in the middle class are likely to have some retirement savings, own a house, and send their children to college. For many Americans, the term evokes specific attributes, such as thriftiness and dedication to work. One weakness of population surveys, however, is that how people define middle class varies.
The most straightforward way to find out who is middle class is to just ask them. Survey Says: The Middle Class Knows It Is Struggling There are two other primary strategies: Focus on the share of total income earned by the middle 60 percent, or define “middle class” with upper and lower income limits and see who falls in that zone.Īs we explore in our recent research, each of these methods have their limitations, but each also reveals a different facet of the decline of America’s middle class: either the shrinking membership in the middle class or the reduction in aggregate middle class income.
Surveying individuals about class status is one of the common ways that researchers can learn about who considers themselves middle class, where they fall within the middle class, and why they consider themselves middle class. One-third said the middle class might disappear entirely. Seven in ten respondents to a Northwestern Mutual survey said that the middle class was staying the same or shrinking.
Surveys show that Americans accurately perceive these pressures too and share a broad belief that the middle class is struggling. In a 2015 Pew survey, only 10 percent of Americans said they considered themselves lower class and just 1 percent thought they were upper class.Įarnings have been flat or stagnant for many middle-class workers in the United States while health care, education, and housing costs are rising. Doctors and lawyers believe they are middle-class so, too, do welders and waiters.
But there is one thing they have in common: all reveal that the middle class in America is shrinking.Ĭhances are that you believe you are in the middle class-nearly everyone in the United States does. There are different ways of determining who should be considered middle-class.
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