--- title: "5 takeaways about the American middle class" description: "The middle class has long been the country’s economic majority, but our new analysis finds that’s no longer true." date: "2015-12-10" authors: - name: "Rakesh Kochhar" job_title: "Former Senior Researcher" link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/rakesh-kochhar/" - name: "Richard Fry" job_title: "Senior Researcher" link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/richard-fry/" url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2015/12/10/5-takeaways-about-the-american-middle-class/" categories: - "Middle Class" --- # 5 takeaways about the American middle class ***Note:** For our more recent in-depth analysis of the middle class, read “[The State of the American Middle Class](https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/05/31/the-state-of-the-american-middle-class/)” (May 2024).* Americans in middle-income households have lost significant ground since 1970, according to a [new Pew Research Center analysis](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/12/09/the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground/) of government data. The middle class has long been the country’s economic majority, but our new analysis finds that’s no longer true. Meanwhile, the middle class has fallen further behind upper-income households financially, which now hold a larger share of aggregate household income than ever before in the 44-year period examined. [![Share of U.S. adults living in the middle-income households is shrinking](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/12/15.12.09_middleClass.gif)](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2015/12/15.12.09_middleClass.gif) We define middle-income households as those whose annual household income is two-thirds to double the U.S. median household income after incomes have been adjusted for household size. This amounts to about $42,000 to $126,000 annually, in 2014 dollars and for a household of three. Lower-income households have incomes less than two-thirds of the median, while upper-income households have incomes that are more than double the median. *([Related: Are you in the American middle class? Find out with our income calculator.](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2015/12/09/are-you-in-the-american-middle-class/))* Here are five key takeaways from the report: **Middle-income Americans are no longer the nation’s economic majority. **In early 2015, there were 120.8 million adults in middle-income households, matched in number by the 121.3 million adults who were in lower- and upper-income households combined. This is the [culmination of a long slide](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/12/09/1-the-hollowing-of-the-american-middle-class/#how-many-adults-are-middle-income) in which the share of adults in middle-income households has fallen from 61% in 1971 to 50% in 2015. **The decline in the middle represents both economic progress and polarization. **The shift shows progress in the sense that a larger share of Americans now live in upper-income households. Fully 21% of American adults in 2015 were upper income, compared with 14% in 1971, a 7-percentage-point increase. The increase in the share of upper-income adults was greater than the change in the opposite direction. Some 29% of U.S. adults were low income in 2015, compared with 25% in 1971. But the data also show increasing economic polarization: As the distribution of adults thins in the middle, it is bulking up most at the extreme ends of the income distribution, the lowest and highest tiers. [![Income has grown fastest among America's 'upper' households](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/12/FT_15.12.14_Middle-Income-Blog_2.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/12/09/4-middle-class-incomes-fall-further-behind-upper-tier-incomes/#trends-in-the-income-of-lower-middle-and-upper-income-households) **Over the long haul, America’s middle-income households have seen their income grow.** [From 1970 to 2014](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/12/09/4-middle-class-incomes-fall-further-behind-upper-tier-incomes/#trends-in-the-income-of-lower-middle-and-upper-income-households), these households’ median income increased from $54,682 to $73,392 (in 2014 dollars), a gain of 34%. Lower-income household incomes have grown, too, but not as much: 28% over the same 44-year period. Upper-income household incomes have grown most, up 47% over this period. **However, the nation’s economic progress over the past several decades masks financial setbacks since 2000.** Because of the recession in 2001 and the Great Recession of 2007-09, overall household incomes fell from 2000 to 2014. The greatest loss was felt by lower-income households, whose median income fell 9% over this period; the median for middle-income households fell 4%, and that for upper-income households fell 3%. **The *share* of U.S. aggregate household income held by middle-income households has plunged,** from 62% in 1970 to 43% in 2014. Meanwhile, the share held by upper-income households increased from 29% to 49%. [This shift](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/12/09/4-middle-class-incomes-fall-further-behind-upper-tier-incomes/#distribution-of-u-s-aggregate-household-income) is driven both by the growing size of the upper-income tier and more rapid gains in income at the top. There is also a growing [disparity in the median wealth](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/12/09/5-wealth-gap-between-middle-income-and-upper-income-families-reaches-record-high/) (assets minus debts) of these income tiers. Upper-income families, who had three times as much wealth as middle-income families in 1983, [more than doubled the wealth gap](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/12/17/wealth-gap-upper-middle-income/) to seven times as much in 2013. **Over the years, certain** **demographic groups have fared better than others in moving up the economic ladder. **Since 1971, older Americans (ages 65 and older) and African Americans have [made notable progress](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/12/09/2-changes-in-income-status-vary-across-demographic-groups/) in moving up the income tiers. But overall, both groups are still overrepresented in the lower-income tier. Married adults also made significant progress over this 44-year period, and women overall made greater economic gains than men. Americans without a college degree stand out as experiencing a substantial loss in economic status since 1971, as do young adults ages 18 to 29. Hispanics overall are also more likely to be in lower-income households than in 1971, a change driven by the increasing share of immigrants in the Hispanic population in the past four decades.