Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
When the national conversation focuses on class, the social safety net and the distribution of wealth as it has in the past week, the public sees clear differences between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, and Obama has an overall advantage. People are more likely to say Obama’s policies would help the middle class and poor, […]
The percentage of Americans who say they are in the lower-middle or lower class has risen from a quarter of the adult population to about a third in the past four years, according to a national survey of 2,508 adults by the Pew Research Center. Not only has the lower class grown, but its demographic […]
The Pew Research Center has published a number of recent reports that are relevant to the new Census Bureau numbers for the 2011 poverty rate, median household income and people without health insurance. This posting lists and links to reports about Americans’ attitudes toward their own economic circumstances and views on helping the poor, as well as analysis and explanation about poverty and economic well-being.
A somewhat larger share of middle-class adults believe that the policies of President Obama will help the middle class than say the same about the policies of Republican hopeful Mitt Romney, according to the Pew Research survey. The survey also finds a much wider gap in perceptions about which party favors the rich—62% of middle-class […]
A majority of middle-class adults say they have a better standard of living now than their parents had at the same stage of life, and a plurality say they expect their own children’s standard of living to eventually surpass their own. However, a somewhat smaller share holds these views now than in early 2008, when […]
Over the past decade, the Great Recession, a housing market collapse, an unemployment surge and an anemic recovery have squeezed the middle class. An overwhelming majority of middle-class Americans (85%) say it is more difficult today than 10 years ago for those in the middle class to maintain their standard of living, according to a […]
Asked to place themselves on a five-step socioeconomic ladder, about half of Americans (49%) say they are in the middle, according to the Pew Research survey. In a similar survey taken in 2008, 53% of adults placed themselves in the middle class. An additional 17% of the public places itself in the upper or upper […]
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. Our new report explores how middle-class Americans view themselves, as well as their outlook on the future and on the presidential candidates who are […]
This posting describes and links to a new report, “The Lost Decade of the Middle Class,” that combines income data from the Census Bureau, wealth data from the Survey of Consumer Finances and findings from a new survey to paint a portrait of diminished finances and muted hopes.
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. […]
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