{"id":39938,"date":"2015-12-09T15:52:34","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T20:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2015\/12\/09\/3-middle-income-adults-largely-reflect-the-nations-demographics\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:23:40","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:23:40","slug":"3-middle-income-adults-largely-reflect-the-nations-demographics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/3-middle-income-adults-largely-reflect-the-nations-demographics\/","title":{"rendered":"3. Middle-income adults largely reflect the nation\u2019s demographics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Demographics<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

As a group, middle-income adults look much like U.S. adults overall, in terms of their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. By some measures, middle-income adults are more similar to all adults today than was true in 1971. For example, adults ages 65 and older were underrepresented in the middle-income population in 1971. But that is no longer the case because older adults experienced greater gains in economic status than other age groups from 1971 to 2015.<\/p>\n\n

This chapter explores the demographics of middle-income adults, with some comparisons to lower-income and upper-income adults. The tables in Appendix B show the demographics of each income tier in greater detail.<\/p>\n\n

As noted, \u201cmiddle-income adults\u201d are defined as those with household incomes that are between two-thirds and twice the median household income overall. These adults accounted for 50% of all adults in 2015, down from 61% in 1971. Their incomes for a three-person household ranged from about $42,000 to $126,000 in 2014.<\/p>\n\n

Education:<\/strong> As is true of U.S. adults overall, most middle-income adults now have at least some college education, but the opposite was the case in 1971. From 1971 to 2015, the share of middle-income adults with some college education or a two-year degree increased from 14% to 32%. Over the same period, the share with a bachelor\u2019s degree or more rose from 10% to 28%. The educational attainment of middle-income adults in 2015 mirrors that of society overall. As shown in Appendix B, lower-income adults are the least likely to have at least some college education, and upper-income adults are the most likely to have at least some college education.<\/p>\n\n

Age: <\/strong>Older adults, whose economic status improved markedly from 1971 to 2015, make up a larger share of middle-income adults today. The share of middle-income adults who are ages 65 and older doubled from 9% in 1971 to 18% in 2015. The age profile of middle-income adults now closely resembles that of adults overall. But middle-income adults (and lower-income adults) are younger than upper-income adults (see the tables in Appendix B).<\/p>\n\n

Race and ethnicity: <\/strong>As the nation has become more racially and ethnically diverse in recent decades, so have middle-income adults. Whites are now about two-thirds of middle-income adults (67%), a decline from their 80% representation in 1971. This trend parallels the pattern for all adults, as does the increase in Hispanics and blacks as a share of middle-income adults. Hispanics, 15% of middle-income adults in 2015, were 11% of this group in 1971. Blacks, 11% of middle-income adults in 2015, were 7% in 1971. The share of Asians among middle-income adults, 6% in 2015, has doubled since 1991, the earliest year that data are available for this racial group.<\/p>\n\n

Middle-income adults in 2015 were more likely to be white (67%) than lower-income adults (52%) but less likely than upper-income adults (77%). Middle-income adults in 2015 were less likely to be black or Hispanic than lower-income adults, but more likely than upper-income adults.<\/p>\n\n

Nativity: <\/strong>As is true of the country overall, middle-income adults include a growing share of immigrants. In 2015, 15% of middle-income adults were foreign born, about the same as for all adults (16%). The share of foreign born is markedly higher for lower-income adults (22%) and slightly lower for upper-income adults (13%). Since 2001, the share of foreign born has risen slightly for the total adult population as well as for all income groups.<\/p>\n\n

Marriage:<\/strong> The declining share of married adults in the U.S. has played a role in reshaping the makeup of middle-income adults. Unmarried adults were 26% of middle-income adults in 1971 and 46% in 2015 (slightly below their 49% representation in the overall adult population). Married adults with children at home, who were half (51%) of middle-income adults in 1971, were 30% of the category in 2015. Married adults without children at home accounted for 22% of middle-income adults in 1971, and rose slightly to 24% in 2015.<\/p>\n\n

A striking difference between the income groups is in the share who are not married \u2013 63% of lower-income adults, 46% of middle-income adults and 35% of upper-income adults. A similar pattern is true for married adults without children at home, who make up 24% of the middle-income group, higher than their 17% of lower-income adults and less than their 33% of upper-income adults. Married people with children at home make up a higher share of middle-income adults (30% in 2015) and upper-income adults (32%) than of lower-income adults (20%).<\/p>\n\n

Labor market status<\/h3>\n\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"On<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Employment status: Generally speaking, labor force participation is higher and other measures of employment are better at each step up the income ladder.[39. numoffset=”39″ The labor force measures discussed in this section are for the month of March in each year and are not seasonally adjusted.] In 2015, 70% of middle-income adults were either working or actively looking for work (the definition of who is in the labor force), compared with 43% of lower-income adults and 80% of upper-income adults. The share of adults who are employed \u2013 the employment-population ratio \u2013 ranged from 38% among lower-income adults to 66% among middle-income adults to 78% among upper-income adults.<\/p>\n\n

A similar pattern exists for the unemployment rate, the share of the labor force that is without work and actively looking for work. The unemployment rate of all middle-income adults, 4% in March of 2015, was much closer to the 2% rate of upper-income adults than to the 13% rate for lower-income adults.<\/p>\n\n

Unemployment rose for all income groups during the Great Recession, but lower-income adults have not recovered to the same extent as middle- and upper-income adults. The unemployment rate remains higher in 2015 for lower-income adults (13%) compared with their 10% rate in 2007, while rates for middle- and upper-income adults are the same as in 2007. The Great Recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a group, middle-income adults look much like U.S. adults overall, in terms of their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. By some measures, middle-income adults are more similar to all adults today than was true in 1971. For example, adults ages 65 and older were underrepresented in the middle-income population in 1971. But that is no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_api_pending":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_hidden":false,"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"bylines":[],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[519],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-39938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","formats-report","research-teams-social-trends"],"label":false,"post_parent":39980,"word_count":881,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/3-middle-income-adults-largely-reflect-the-nations-demographics\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":51362,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/12\/ST_15.11.20_Middle-Income-Report_Promo.png","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/12\/ST_15.11.20_Middle-Income-Report_Promo.png?w=564&h=317&crop=1","width":564,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":51362,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/12\/ST_15.11.20_Middle-Income-Report_Promo.png","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/12\/ST_15.11.20_Middle-Income-Report_Promo.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":51362,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/12\/ST_15.11.20_Middle-Income-Report_Promo.png","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/12\/ST_15.11.20_Middle-Income-Report_Promo.png?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":51362,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/12\/ST_15.11.20_Middle-Income-Report_Promo.png","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/12\/ST_15.11.20_Middle-Income-Report_Promo.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":51362,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/12\/ST_15.11.20_Middle-Income-Report_Promo.png","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/12\/ST_15.11.20_Middle-Income-Report_Promo.png?w=640&h=320&crop=1","width":640,"height":320,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":51362,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/12\/ST_15.11.20_Middle-Income-Report_Promo.png","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/12\/ST_15.11.20_Middle-Income-Report_Promo.png?w=640&h=320&crop=1","width":640,"height":320,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[{"id":39980,"title":"The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground","slug":"the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground\/","is_active":false},{"id":39962,"title":"1. The hollowing of the American middle class","slug":"1-the-hollowing-of-the-american-middle-class","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/1-the-hollowing-of-the-american-middle-class\/","is_active":false},{"id":39952,"title":"2. Changes in income status vary across demographic groups","slug":"2-changes-in-income-status-vary-across-demographic-groups","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/2-changes-in-income-status-vary-across-demographic-groups\/","is_active":false},{"id":39938,"title":"3. Middle-income adults largely reflect the nation\u2019s demographics","slug":"3-middle-income-adults-largely-reflect-the-nations-demographics","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/3-middle-income-adults-largely-reflect-the-nations-demographics\/","is_active":true},{"id":39928,"title":"4. Middle class incomes fall further behind upper-tier incomes","slug":"4-middle-class-incomes-fall-further-behind-upper-tier-incomes","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/4-middle-class-incomes-fall-further-behind-upper-tier-incomes\/","is_active":false},{"id":39917,"title":"5. Wealth gap between middle-income and upper-income families reaches record high","slug":"5-wealth-gap-between-middle-income-and-upper-income-families-reaches-record-high","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/5-wealth-gap-between-middle-income-and-upper-income-families-reaches-record-high\/","is_active":false},{"id":39894,"title":"Acknowledgments","slug":"acknowledgments-58","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/acknowledgments-58\/","is_active":false},{"id":39906,"title":"Methodology","slug":"methodology-50","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/methodology-50\/","is_active":false},{"id":39882,"title":"Appendix A: References","slug":"appendix-a-references-5","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/appendix-a-references-5\/","is_active":false}],"report_materials":[{"key":"51d10bc7-9e94-41d0-94ff-d13fd87397cf","type":"report","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/12\/2015-12-09_middle-class_FINAL-report.pdf","label":"","icon":"","attachmentId":51358},{"key":"a595be11-079d-44f4-8298-7e7f337dc4f1","type":"link","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/12\/2015-12-09_middle-class_appendix-c.pdf","label":"Appendix C<\/strong> Industry and occupation","icon":"detailed-tables","attachmentId":""},{"key":"cde3e8aa-352a-424b-9e74-290265b38f26","type":"promo","url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/12\/ST_15.11.20_Middle-Income-Calc_Promo_140x140.png","label":"Interactive<\/strong> Are you in the American middle class?","icon":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/12\/ST_15.11.20_Middle-Income-Calc_Promo_140x140.png?w=75&h=75&crop=1","attachmentId":51352}],"report_pagination":{"current_post":{"id":39938,"title":"3. 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Changes in income status vary across demographic groups","slug":"2-changes-in-income-status-vary-across-demographic-groups","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/2-changes-in-income-status-vary-across-demographic-groups\/","is_active":false,"page_num":3},"pagination_items":[{"id":39980,"title":"The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground","slug":"the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground\/","is_active":false,"page_num":1},{"id":39962,"title":"1. The hollowing of the American middle class","slug":"1-the-hollowing-of-the-american-middle-class","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/1-the-hollowing-of-the-american-middle-class\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2},{"id":39952,"title":"2. Changes in income status vary across demographic groups","slug":"2-changes-in-income-status-vary-across-demographic-groups","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/2-changes-in-income-status-vary-across-demographic-groups\/","is_active":false,"page_num":3},{"id":39938,"title":"3. Middle-income adults largely reflect the nation\u2019s demographics","slug":"3-middle-income-adults-largely-reflect-the-nations-demographics","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/3-middle-income-adults-largely-reflect-the-nations-demographics\/","is_active":true,"page_num":4},{"id":39928,"title":"4. Middle class incomes fall further behind upper-tier incomes","slug":"4-middle-class-incomes-fall-further-behind-upper-tier-incomes","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/4-middle-class-incomes-fall-further-behind-upper-tier-incomes\/","is_active":false,"page_num":5},{"id":39917,"title":"5. Wealth gap between middle-income and upper-income families reaches record high","slug":"5-wealth-gap-between-middle-income-and-upper-income-families-reaches-record-high","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/5-wealth-gap-between-middle-income-and-upper-income-families-reaches-record-high\/","is_active":false,"page_num":6},{"id":39894,"title":"Acknowledgments","slug":"acknowledgments-58","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/acknowledgments-58\/","is_active":false,"page_num":7},{"id":39906,"title":"Methodology","slug":"methodology-50","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/methodology-50\/","is_active":false,"page_num":8},{"id":39882,"title":"Appendix A: References","slug":"appendix-a-references-5","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2015\/12\/09\/appendix-a-references-5\/","is_active":false,"page_num":9}]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground","parent_id":39980},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Middle-income adults largely reflect the nation's demographics","description":"As a group, middle-income adults look much like U.S. adults overall, in terms of their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. 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