Share of households by income range

The middle class, if defined as households making between $35,000 and $100,000 a year, shrank in the final decades of the 20th century. For a welcome reason, though: More Americans moved up into what might be considered the upper middle class or the affluent. Since 2000, the middle class has been shrinking for a decidedly more alarming reason: Incomes have fallen. Here, we walk through the trends in some detail. There is no universal definition of middle class, of course. Some definitions are based on occupation or wealth; others take regional cost of living into account. We have chosen a simple one starting at about 50 percent above the poverty level for a family of four ($35,000) and topping out at six figures of annual income ($100,000), adjusting for inflation over time. We realize many households making more than $100,000 consider themselves middle class, but they nonetheless are making considerably more than most households — even in New York or San Francisco.

Ten-Year Trend The 10-year income trends highlight the great 21st-century wage slowdown. Never before — since the Census Bureau’s data on household income began, in 1967 — has there been a decline in the share of households that qualify as high income. An article in Monday’s Times examines this trend in further detail.

Percentage point change from 10 years previous

Age Younger households have borne the brunt of the slowdown. Those headed by people aged 30 through 44 are more likely to be lower income — and less likely to be middle income — than in 2000. Older households have done better. With more people working into their late 60s and wages rising for older workers, households headed by people 65 and older are now more likely to be middle or upper income than in the past, though they are still overrepresented in the lower-income group.

Under 30

30 to 44

45 to 64

65 and up

Education Education matters more than it used to. In the 1970s, high school graduates who did not have a four-year college degree were well represented among the middle and upper class. They no longer are, as high-paying, blue-collar jobs have become rarer. College graduates have not suffered as much, though they are also less likely to be high income than they were in 2000.

Less than High School

High School

Some College

College

Race Whites were already more likely to be in the middle- or upper-income groups when the 21st century began, and the gap has widened a bit in the past 15 years. Fully half of black households were lower income in 2013, while 43 percent of Hispanic households were; both numbers have risen 5 percentage points since 2000. Asian households, by contrast, are slightly less likely than white households to be low income.

White

Black

Hispanic

Asian and other

Family Status When people talk about the middle class, they’re often thinking about a married couple with children at home. But the reality is more complicated. Many of those two-adult households have advanced up the income ladder, and they make up a disproportionately large share of the upper-income group. Households with one adult, by comparison, are overrepresented among the lower-income group. The middle class contains a large number of all such households: those with two adults and those with one, those with children at home and those without.

Married with children

Married without children

Single with children