The State of the American Middle Class
As the financial divide has grown, a smaller share of Americans now live in middle-class households. Here are key facts about this group.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
As the financial divide has grown, a smaller share of Americans now live in middle-class households. Here are key facts about this group.
While Black adults define personal and financial success in different ways, most see these measures of success as major sources of pressure in their lives.
Black Americans support significant reforms to or complete overhauls of several U.S. institutions to ensure fair treatment. Yet even as they assess inequality and ideas about progress, many are pessimistic about whether society and institutions will change in ways that would reduce racism.
The share of Asian Americans in the U.S. middle class has held steady since 2010, while the share in the upper-income tier has grown.
Nearly one-in-five middle-income families report receiving unemployment benefits in 2020.
The abrupt closure of many offices and workplaces this past spring ushered in a new era of remote work for millions of employed Americans and may portend a significant shift in the way a large segment of the workforce operates in the future.
The gap in the standard of living between Asians near the top and the bottom of the income ladder nearly doubled from 1970 to
2016. Amid rising inequality overall, Asians displaced blacks as the most economically divided major U.S. racial or ethnic group.
There are deep divisions between blacks and whites in how they see racial discrimination, barriers to black progress and prospects for change.
Homeownership in America stands at its lowest level in at least 20 years. The decline has been more pronounced among households headed by young adults, blacks and those in the lower income tier.
After more than four decades of serving as the nation’s economic majority, the U.S. middle class is now matched in size by those in the economic tiers above and below it.
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