What Is Considered Middle Class Now?

What does it mean to be middle class in the 2020s? The high cost of everything from housing to groceries has left many American households feeling like they’re falling behind, but “middle class” doesn’t primarily involve a cost-of-living comparison. It is about where households stand financially relative to one another.

So then what is considered middle class income these days? Where are the dividing lines of socioeconomic status? And is the American middle class truly in decline, as some believe?

Here is a simple chart that provides the income ranges for middle-class households…but there is more to it than just the figures.

Bottom Line Personal asked economist Richard Fry, PhD, who has been studying these issues for Pew Research Center for more than 15 years, to explain the middle class now…

Middle Class Income

A household is considered middle class if its total income is at least two-thirds of the national median household income but not more than twice that median figure, according to Pew’s widely cited definition. By that definition, a household of three is considered middle class if its total income is between $56,600 and $169,800. A two-person household needs $46,200 to $138,600…a single-person household, $32,700 to $98,000. Those figures are based on 2023 household income, the most recent year for which data is available, and include not only paychecks but also Social Security benefits and investment income.

The middle class is being hollowed out—but that’s not entirely bad news. In 1971, 61% of US households were middle class versus just 52% recently. The majority of the decline is not because households are sliding down into the lower class, which increased by only four percentage points—from 25% to 29%. It is because more households are reaching the upper class, which rose five percentage points—from 14% to 19%. This hollowing out of the middle class appears to be primarily because technology is taking over a wide range of jobs that previously provided solid incomes. There still are plenty of high-income jobs for highly educated people who have specific in-demand abilities…and plenty of low-income jobs, mainly in the service sector. What are disappearing are the often unexciting but formerly solid careers in between, such as bookkeeping.

Three Notable Details in Class Data

Digging a bit deeper into the numbers, some interesting details emerge…

All socioeconomic strata have become better off in recent years

The median household in the upper, middle and lower classes all were significantly better off financially in 2023 than they were in 1971, even after adjusting for inflation. Examples: The median middle-class household recently had $106,100 in annual income, substantially more than the median middle-income household’s inflation-adjusted $66,400 back in 1970. The median lower-class household income was $35,300 recently, up from an inflation-adjusted $22,800…and the median upper-class household income was $256,900, up from an inflation-adjusted $144,100.

The question then is, if all the classes are doing better, why do so many people feel as though they’re falling behind? Perhaps because upper-class households have enjoyed greater income gains on a percentage basis than middle-class or lower-class households, increasing the gap between the rich and everyone else. And perhaps it also is because the prices of key big-ticket items such as homes and cars have climbed so sharply in the past decade that these important purchases currently seem out of reach for many.

Middle class can mean very different things in different states

Framing the term “middle class” in terms of national income levels hides considerable variation. If instead class status is gauged on a state-by-state level, a household of three in Massachusetts would need an income of at least $66,600 to reach middle class and at least $199,700 to enter upper class. In West Virginia, a three-person household would need just $37,300 to be middle class and just $111,900 to be upper class.

Metro areas that include state capitals and those that are in the Rust Belt are among the most solidly middle class

In the state capital regions of Dover, Delaware, and Olympia/Tumwater, Washington, the middle class makes up 65% and 64% of households, respectively—tops among the 254 metro areas examined. The Rust Belt metro areas Grand Rapids/Wyoming, Michigan…Lancaster, Pennsylvania…Wausau, Wisconsin…and Oshkosh/Neenah, Wisconsin, aren’t far behind, each with 60% or more of households in the middle class.