Where Do I Fall in the American Economic Class System? | Family Finance

Understanding where you fall in the American economic class system isn’t as simple as pulling out a calculator or looking at a pay stub. Various forces shape individuals’ economic classes and their views on where they rank among other Americans.

Read on to find out more about how Americans view themselves economically and the ever-changing definition of the middle class.

Among Americans, 73% say they belong to the middle or working classes, according to an April 2022 survey from Gallup.

Additionally, 14% identify themselves as upper-middle class and 2% categorize themselves as upper class. In determining their social classes, people often don’t think only about income, experts say, but about other factors like education, location and family history.

The majority of participants in a 2023 poll by the Washington Post, for instance, said that Americans need to do the following to be considered part of the middle class:

When it comes to defining the middle class, says Jeffery M. Jones, senior editor at Gallup, “It’s more of a feeling. It’s about economic security, being able to afford what you need but then also maybe a bit beyond the basics. Maybe vacations, something extra recreational, a third car, money to do things beyond what you need to live,” he says.

Recent economic trends such as elevated rates of inflation, waves of employee layoffs, fears of an impending recession and other ripple effects from COVID-19 have impacted the financial health of many American households and businesses.

The recent price increases alone have caused 63% of U.S. adults to experience financial hardship, according to a January 2024 Gallup survey. Of those, 17% say they’re experiencing severe hardships that threaten their standard of living.

Since Gallup began monitoring this metric in 2021, the number of Americans reporting financial hardships due to inflation has increased by 18% and the number reporting severe hardships has increased by 7%.

Time will tell how recent events impact the way Americans view their economic class rankings in the years to come.

In general, much of today’s political rhetoric focuses on the challenges facing the middle class.

Although household incomes have risen over the past 50 years or so, it took more than 15 years for them to regain their 2000-level incomes and recover from the short-lived 2001 recession and longer Great Recession, says Richard Fry, senior researcher for the Pew Research Center.

“The 15-year period of stagnation was an episode of unprecedented duration in the past five decades,” he says.

According to Fry, meager income gains likely have contributed to feelings of frustration and downward mobility. And while most American households are doing better than they were 50 years ago, the gains have not been equal, he says.

“Everybody’s better off, but it’s particularly the well-off who are better off,” he adds.

One way some researchers divide individuals into economic classes is by looking at their incomes. From that data, they split earners into different classes: poor, lower-middle class, middle class, upper-middle class and wealthy.

The income cutoffs that define those ranges can change from year to year and vary among methodologies. Here’s a sense of where they stand, according to recent data.

The Pew Research Center defines middle-income Americans as those whose annual household incomes are two-thirds to double the national median (adjusted for local cost of living and household size).

In the fourth quarter of 2023, the median weekly earnings for full-time American workers was $1,145, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That puts the median annual income at about $59,540.

According to the Pew Research Center’s guidelines (two-thirds to double the national median), middle-income Americans would have annual incomes between $39,693 and $119,080 in 2023, before adjusting for local cost of living and household size.

How a person perceives their own social class extends beyond what a W-2 income form claims they earn, experts say.

You can look at income, education, marital status, location, family history, gut instinct and a host of other factors to find out where you fall. But the bottom line is this: Finding the answer is more complex than just looking at a number.

Where you fall in the American economic class system also may not stay consistent throughout your life – or even from year to year.

For example, a law student may earn a modest graduate student stipend of $20,000 per year, which would put them in the low-income class. But education and future earnings will most likely catapult their income and class placement to a higher level down the road.

“People really need to understand that whatever’s happening (with their class rank) today is part of a trajectory, part of their life,” says Stephen Rose, a nonresident fellow at the Urban Institute and research professor at George Washington Institute of Public Policy.