Full Citation

Title: The State of the American Middle Class

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2024

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Abstract: Our report focuses on the current state of the American middle class. First, we examine changes in the financial well-being of the middle class and other income tiers since 1970. This is based on data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplements (ASEC) of the Current Population Survey (CPS), conducted from 1971 to 2023. Then, we report on the attributes of people who were more or less likely to be middle class in 2022. Our focus is on their race and ethnicity, age, gender, marital and veteran status, place of birth, ancestry, education, occupation, industry, and metropolitan area of residence. These estimates are derived from American Community Survey (ACS) data and differ slightly from the CPS-based estimates. In part, that is because incomes can be adjusted for the local area cost of living only with the ACS data. (Refer to the methodology for details on these two data sources.) This analysis and an accompanying report on the Asian American middle class are part of a series on the status of America’s racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. middle class and other income tiers. Forthcoming analyses will focus on White, Black, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander and multiracial Americans, including subgroups within these populations. These reports are, in part, updates of previous work by the Center. But they offer much greater detail on the demographic attributes of the American middle class.

Url: https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/05/31/the-state-of-the-american-middle-class/

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Kocchar, Rakesh

Publisher: Pew Reseach Center

Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS CPS

Topics: Poverty and Welfare, Race and Ethnicity

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