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A recent Pew Research Center study shows the middle class declining in Portland and three other metro areas in Oregon.

(LC- Janet Eastman)

The middle class is shrinking all over.

According to a Pew Research Center study released Thursday, however, it's shrinking faster in Bend than almost anywhere else in the country. Portland shows a bigger decline than the national average, too.

Oregon's four metro areas included in the Pew study -- Bend, Eugene, Medford and Portland -- all followed the national trend to some extent. Pew found that the middle class was smaller in 2014 than it was in 2000 in 203 out of 229 U.S. metropolitan areas surveyed.

Pew defines "middle class" as adults whose annual household income is between two-thirds and two times the national median, based on the number of people in the household. In 2014, the national middle-income range was about $42,000 to $125,000 annually for a household of three.

Michael Sayer, a 22-year-old student at Portland State, said Thursday afternoon that he's pinching his pennies, so he can make it in the city.

He lives at his parents' home in Portland and has a job at Xerox. Even so, he said having supportive parents has been the only thing that allowed him to stay out of debt while in college.

Someday, though, he said, "I am looking forward to living on my own."

In Bend, the proportion of residents in the middle class dropped from 59.5 percent in 2000 to 51.1 percent in 2014, a decrease of 14 percent. Only eight metro areas out of the 229 nationwide showed bigger declines.

Those living above middle class in Bend grew by 25 percent, and those below it grew by 18 percent. Both ends of the barbell grew, in other words, while the middle thinned out.

Portland's middle class decreased by 10 percent. Meanwhile, the lower and upper classes both increased by 14 percent.

Eugene and Medford were more middle-of-the-pack nationally, with middle classes declining 8 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

In Medford, the upper class declined at a faster rate than the middle class, dropping 7 percent.

Christian Kaylor, an economist at the Oregon Employment Department, said the term "median income" becomes deceptive when more people are on the lower and higher end of the spectrum and fewer people are actually in the middle.

Kaylor said policymakers will likely struggle to find common ground in the future as a result of the decreasing middle class. It's harder to craft policies that generate consensus among voters at opposite ends of the income spectrum.

"When you're a government agency trying to craft policy on any topic, it's hard to do because you're having two conversations," he said. "One would apply to six-figure income houses and another to five-figure income houses."

Kaylor said the trend also points to an increase in high-paying jobs in Portland. That, in turn, drives up housing and other costs - pricing out lower- and middle-income residents.

Twenty-four-year-old Maddie Dailey, originally from Salt Lake City, was walking in downtown Portland on Thursday. She said with housing costs in the city increasing rapidly, the "middle class is pushed out to the peripheries."

-- Natasha Rausch