Looking to the Future, Public Sees an America in Decline on Many Fronts
When Americans peer 30 years into the future, they see a country in decline economically, politically and on the world stage.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
When Americans peer 30 years into the future, they see a country in decline economically, politically and on the world stage.
Despite some ups and downs over the past several decades, today’s real average wage in the U.S. has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago. And most of what wage gains there have been have flowed to the highest-paid tier of workers.
While the size of the U.S. middle class remained relatively stable between 2002 and 2016, financial gains for middle-income Americans were modest compared with those of higher-income households.
In the U.S., the racial and ethnic wealth gap has evolved differently for families at different income levels since the Great Recession.
The fortunes of the middle classes across Western Europe are moving in different directions. Some nations are experiencing both growing incomes and expanding middle classes, while other nations are witness to stagnant or declining incomes and shrinking middle classes, a new Pew Research Center analysis of 11 Western European countries has found. But in a few other countries studied, the middle-class shares are decreasing even as incomes overall are rising.
From 1991 to 2010, the middle class expands in France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, but, as in the United States, shrinks in Germany, Italy and Spain
The American middle class is smaller than middle classes across Western Europe, but its income is higher.
There are deep divisions between blacks and whites in how they see racial discrimination, barriers to black progress and prospects for change.
Pew Research Center President Michael Dimock examines the changes – some profound, some subtle – that the U.S. experienced during Barack Obama’s presidency.
The American middle class is losing ground in metropolitan areas across the country, affecting communities from Boston to Seattle and from Dallas to Milwaukee.
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