From Hillary Clinton to Americans living in poverty, everyone wants to be middle class, but more and more consider themselves ‘lower-middle class’. We want to hear from you about where you see yourself in the stratum

Ask any politician and they’ll tell you they are a champion for the middle class.

But who is in the American middle class?

The American Dream is, in most incarnations, a middle-class phenomenon: House with a white picket fence. A college education. A well-paid job. These are all traditional signs that you have made it to that comfortable mid-point of American economy.

But class is not necessarily decided that way any more. Many young people grew up middle-class, but their debt loads and low pay would technically, put them in the working class. Many who grew up poor get good educations and, later, good jobs, but it takes decades before they feel middle-class.



More people are carrying heavy debtloads – a growing American problem. While education has been hailed as a path to middle-class achievement, it now comes with a side of crushing student loan debt that delays economic progress.



As a result, the number of 18-29 year olds who consider themselves lower-middle class has doubled since 2008 reaching 49%.

It’s a hard question to answer. Earlier this week, US Census Bureau found that 45.3 million Americans are still stuck in poverty. About 14.7 million of them are children. Average household income hovers around $51,700 – which is how much Americans were earning back in 1995. Yet even as 14.5% of Americans meet the actual definition of living in poverty, only about 7% of them will define themselves as lower class.

The definition most of them prefer is lower-middle class. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of those who define themselves as lower or lower-middle class has gone up to 40% in 2014, increasing by 15% since 2008.



Just as no one wants to be know as poor, they also rather not be known as rich. That same survey found that currently only about 15% of Americans would say they are in the upper economic classes. In 2008, 21% of them identify as in the upper or upper-middle class.

Fewer Americans think they are well off. Photograph: Pew Research Center

Even Hillary Clinton, who reportedly made over $100m along with her husband President Bill Clinton since leaving the White House, said that she didn’t consider her family as being “truly well off”.

So we at the Guardian want to know – what class do you consider yourself a member of? Does debt play into how you define yourself? Do lower paychecks?

Help us figure out what Americans like yourself consider themselves as: