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The middle class in the United States has shrunk since 2000.
Stateline analysis reveals that in all 50 states, the percentage of “middle-class” households – those earning between 67 percent and 200 percent of the state’s median income – shrunk between 2000 and 2013. The transformation happened even as the median income in most U.S. states declined when corrected for inflation. In most U.S. states, the growing percentage of households paying 30 percent (the federal standard for housing affordability) or more of their income on housing shows that it is more challenging for many American families to make ends meet.
Many U.S. cities have a similar situation. Concentrated wealth has risen next to a rapid decline in median income.
