The Shrinking American Middle Class

The Pew Research Center estimates that the share of adults who live in middle class households fell from 61% in 1971 to 50% in 2021, based on analysis of US government data. During the same period of time, the percentage of adults that fell into the lower class increased. While it is a positive thing that there has been an increase in the upper class populations during this time period as some of the population has increased mobility from the middle to upper class. An important and disturbing occurrence has also transpired simultaneously. The upper class has taken up a larger, disproportionate amount of the overall wealth in the country while the middle class share of the country’s wealth has been reduced. The rich are certainly getting richer and the middle class are finding it harder and harder to sustain their position in society. A striking example of the contrasting decline of the middle class and the rise of the ultrarich and upper class is the change in the share of arrogate US household income. The Pew Research Center illustrates that the middle class share of the US aggregate income fell 20% from 62% to 42% from 1970 to 2020. While the upper-income households aggregate income increased more than 20% from 29% to 50%. The graph below from the Pew Research Center, depicts a concerning trend where the upper class share of US aggregate income surpassed the middle class share compared to just 30 years prior in the 1970s when the middle class held the lions share of the US aggregate income, double that of the upper class. While some of the shift to a disproportionate upper class aggregate income can be explained by some of the middle class population moving upward into the upper class. It does not explain all of the disproportionate shift as only single digit increases have occurred from upward mobility shift of middle class to upper class during this period, while the overall aggregate income of the upper class has increased more than 20%. While a select few are able to reach a higher, upper class status the middle class continue to struggle with less available to them as the upper class ultrarich continue to accumulate an unfair share of wealth.

PEW Research Center- Share of Aggregate Income in America