Middle Class

The vast majority of American adults agree that a secure job and the ability to save money for the future are essential. But one thing is now less likely to be seen as a requirement: a college education.

From Millennials in the workforce to religion in America, our most popular posts told important stories about trends shaping our world.

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.

As a whole, Latin America enjoyed solid economic growth in the first decade of this century, with a fall in poverty, a decrease in income inequality and a rise of its middle class.

China and India both succeeded in slashing poverty from 2001 to 2011. But while that contributed to a rapidly growing middle class in China, it did little to increase the number of Indians who could be considered middle income.

During the first decade of this century, the world experienced a dramatic drop in the number of people living in poverty and a significant rise in the number who could be considered middle income, but the majority of the global population remains low income.

The first decade of this century witnessed an historic reduction in global poverty and a near doubling of the number of people who could be considered middle income. But the emergence of a truly global middle class is still far from fruition.

Trends in public opinion are in line with Obama’s agenda: The priority given to deficit reduction has slipped somewhat, while public support for rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure has increased.

The share of Americans who live in middle-income households has held steady since 2010 – a flat trend that might actually be good news.

Today about as many Americans identify themselves as lower or lower-middle class (40%) as say they are in the middle class (44%).