The median income of American households decreased by as much in the two years after the official end of the Great Recession as it did during the recession itself. The latest estimates from the Census Bureau show that the median income for U.S. households in 2011 was $50,054. In 2009, the year the Great Recession ended, the median income of U.S. households had been $52,195 (in 2011 dollars). Thus, in the two years since the end of the recession, median household income has fallen by 4.1%.

The decrease in household income from 2009 to 2011 almost exactly equaled the decrease in income in the two years of the recession. During the Great Recession, the median U.S. household income (in 2011 dollars) dropped from $54,489 in 2007 to $52,195 in 2009, a loss of 4.2%. By this yardstick, the recovery from the Great Recession is bypassing the nation’s households.

On the eve of Apple’s unveiling of the iPhone 5, 45% of American adults own smartphones. They are particularly popular with young adults and those living in relatively higher income households; 66% of those ages 18-29 own smartphones, and 68% of those living in households earning $75,000 also own them.

These findings come from a survey of 3,014 adults by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project between August 7-September 6, 2012.

More American adults own smartphones than own feature cell phones-that is, the phones that can be used as a phone and for texting, but do not have a smartphone operating system such as Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android. Some 34% of adults have a feature phone; 5% of adults say they do not know if they have a smartphone or not; and 15% of American adults have no cell phone at all.

These latest figures show that smartphone ownership has increased from 35% in May of 2011 to 45%, though there has been no change in smartphone ownership from figures that the Pew Internet Project found in a survey at the beginning of the year.

As Republicans gather for their national convention in Tampa to nominate a presidential candidate known, in part, as a wealthy businessman, a new nationwide Pew Research Center survey finds that many Americans believe the rich are different than other people. They are viewed as more intelligent and more hardworking but also greedier and less honest.

Nearly six-in-ten survey respondents (58%) also say the rich pay too little in taxes, while 26% say they pay their fair share, and just 8% say they pay too much. Even among those who describe themselves as upper or upper-middle class1, 52% say upper-income Americans don’t pay enough in taxes.

In spite of these views, overwhelming majorities of self-described middle- and lower-class Americans say they admire people who get rich by working hard (92% and 84%, respectively).

The new survey, which was conducted July 16-26, 2012, among 2,508 adults nationwide, finds that a majority of the public (65%) thinks the nation’s income gap between rich and poor has grown in the past decade-and most say that’s a bad thing for the country.

The survey also finds that the gap between rich and poor goes far beyond income. Adults who self-identify as being in the upper or upper-middle class are generally happier, healthier and more satisfied with their jobs than are those in the middle or lower classes. And they are much less likely to have suffered economic hardships as a result of the recession.
In addition, those in the upper class are more satisfied than those in the middle or lower classes with their family life, their housing situation and their education. Upper-class Americans even report experiencing less stress. Only 29% of those in the upper class say they frequently experience stress, compared with 37% of those in the middle class and 58% of lower-class adults.

As the 2012 presidential candidates prepare their closing arguments to America’s middle class, they are courting a group that has endured a lost decade for economic well-being. Since 2000, the middle class has shrunk in size, fallen backward in income and wealth, and shed some — but by no means all — of its characteristic faith in the future, according to a new Pew Research survey and analysis of data from U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

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Fully 85% of Americans who describe themselves as middle class say it is more difficult now than it was a decade ago for middle-class people to maintain their standard of living. This downbeat take comes at the end of a decade in which mean family incomes declined for Americans overall for the first time since the end of World War II. But the middle-income tier – defined as all adults with annual household incomes that are two-thirds to double the national median — is the only one that also shrunk in size, a trend that has continued for four decades.

In 2011, the middle-income tier included 51% of all adults, down from 61% in 1971. This has been accompanied by a dispersion of the population into the economic tiers both above and below, with slightly more moving into the upper tier. But only the upper tier has increased its share of the nation’s total household income. In 2010, the upper tier took in 46% of the nation’s household income, up from 29% in 1970. The middle tier took in 45%, down from 62%. The lower tier dropped to 9% from 10%.

Appeals to the beleaguered middle class have been at the heart of the 2012 presidential campaign. The new Pew Research survey, conducted from July 16 to July 26, finds that neither candidate has closed the deal with this group, but that President Obama is in somewhat better shape than his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.

The survey also finds that the middle class blames Congress more than any of the institutions or entities tested in this survey for its hard economic times in the last decade.

These are among the principal findings from the Pew Research analysis of U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve Bank trend data, as well as a new nationwide Pew Research survey of more than 2,500 adults, including 1,287 who describe themselves as middle class.

Read the full report.

Residential segregation by income has increased during the past three decades across the United States and in 27 of the nation’s 30 largest major metropolitan areas, according to a new analysis of census tract and household income data by the Pew Research Center.

The analysis finds that 28% of lower-income households in 2010 were located in a majority lower-income census tract, up from 23% in 1980, and that 18% of upper- income households were located in a majority upper-income census tract, up from 9% in 1980.

These increases are related to the long-term rise in income inequality, which has led to a shrinkage in the share of neighborhoods across the United States that are predominantly middle class or mixed income — to 76% in 2010, down from 85% in 1980 — and a rise in the shares that are majority lower income (18% in 2010, up from 12% in 1980) and majority upper income (6% in 2010, up from 3% in 1980).

Despite the long-term rise in residential segregation by income, it remains less pervasive than residential segregation by race, even though black-white segregation has been falling for several decades.

The Pew Research analysis also finds significant differences among the nation’s 10 most populous metropolitan areas in the patterns and degree of residential segregation by income.

By two-to-one (44% to 22%), the public says that raising taxes on incomes above $250,000 would help the economy rather than hurt it, while 24% say this would not make a difference. Moreover, an identical percentage (44%) says a tax increase on higher incomes would make the tax system more fair, while just 21% say it would make the system less fair.

Most Democrats say raising taxes on incomes over $250,000 would help the economy (64%) and make the tax system more fair (65%). Republicans are more divided: 41% say this would hurt the economy, while 27% say it would help and 24% it would make no difference. And while 36% of Republicans say raising taxes on incomes over $250,000 would make the tax system less fair, 30% say this would make no difference and 25% say it would make the tax system more fair.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted July 12-15 among 1,015 adults, finds that 58% identify Barack Obama as the presidential candidate who favors raising taxes to incomes above $250,000. Republicans (66%) and Democrats (64%) are more likely than independents (53%) to correctly associate Obama with this proposal.