baseline of 100, from 79 (in Beckley, W.Va.) to 127 (in San Jose, Calif.) and (b) average household size, which influences the resources available per person, and varies from 2.11 (in The Villages, Fla.) to 3.89 (in El Centro, Calif.). The analysis then adjusts those national thresholds based on two characteristics for each metropolitan area: (a) Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities, which measure the differences in price levels across metro areas and vary from a U.S. households had incomes between about $25,000 and $120,000 in 2017. It defines the middle class as occupying the middle three quintiles of the national income distribution (based on the 2017 American Community Survey), following a definition adopted by the Brookings Future of the Middle Class Initiative. Ultimately, this analysis adopts a middle ground. The latter may offer a clearer picture of the shape of the income distribution within a regional economy, but may produce large differences in the definition of “middle class” across metro areas that obscure true variation in the share of households that have what most observers would consider to be a middle-class income. The former provides a more apples-to-apples comparison of incomes across metro areas, but may fail to take sufficient account of the differences in what it takes to be “middle class” (i.e., costs of living) in different regional settings. One could calculate specific thresholds for each metro area based on its median income, then calculate the share of households with incomes between those thresholds.Įach of these approaches (and others) has advantages and disadvantages. Many federal programs use 60 percent or 80 percent of a metropolitan area’s median income as a dividing line between low/moderate and middle income. Vary the definition of middle class for each metropolitan area based on its own middle, i.e., median.income distribution, then calculate the share of households in each metropolitan area who have incomes between the thresholds implied by that quintile. For instance, define the middle class as the middle 20 percent of the U.S. Apply a uniform national definition of the middle class to data for metro areas.One could measure the size of the middle class in metro areas in at least two ways: Click here to explore the interactive dashboard: Share of metro area households by income category » It concludes with observations on the value of measuring middle-class size and status locally. Looking across 382 metro areas, this analysis spotlights variation in the size of the middle class, factors associated with that variation, and trends in middle-class representation over time.

While there are few truly metropolitan governments in the United States, actors in many of the policy areas noted above work to influence economic opportunity at that scale. This report examines the presence of the middle class in America’s metropolitan areas, the collections of cities and surrounding suburbs that represent the nation’s regional economies. By the same token, many public policies and institutions that affect the size and stability of the middle class are also local in nature, such as economic and workforce development, transportation and housing, and K-12 schools and community colleges.

Middle class definition