While roughly half of American adults (53%) describe themselves as middle class, they are a varied lot — on key measures of well-being such as income, wealth, health, optimism about the future, they tend to fall between those who identify with classes above and below them, but within this self-defined middle class, there are notable economic and demographic differences. For example, four-in-ten Americans with incomes below $20,000 say they are middle class, as do a third of those with incomes above $150,000. And about the same percentages of blacks (50%), Hispanics (54%) and whites (53%) self-identify as middle class, even though members of minority groups who say they are middle class have far less income and wealth than do whites who say they are middle class. Read More