Report: 'Middle Class' Continues To Shrink

Share of US Adults living in middle-income houseolds is shrinking

Americans in middle-income households have lost significant ground since 1970, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data.

The middle class has long been the country’s economic majority, but our new analysis finds that’s no longer true. Meanwhile, the middle class has fallen further behind upper-income households financially, which now hold a larger share of aggregate household income than ever before in the 44-year period examined.

Pew defines middle-income households as those whose annual household income is two-thirds to double the U.S. median household income after incomes have been adjusted for household size. This amounts to about $42,000 to $126,000 annually, in 2014 dollars and for a household of three. Lower-income households have incomes less than two-thirds of the median, while upper-income households have incomes that are more than double the median.