Goldsboro ranked near the bottom with a loss of 26% in median income. The decline was pervasive, with median incomes falling in 190 of 229 metropolitan areas examined. households in 2014 stood at 8% less than in 1999, a reminder that the economy has yet to fully recover from the effects of the Great Recession of 2007-09. The widespread erosion of the middle class took place against the backdrop of a decrease in household incomes in most U.S. similar to you in education, age, race or ethnicity, and marital status. Our new calculator lets you find out which group you are in – first compared with other adults in your metropolitan area and among American adults overall, and then compared with other adults in the U.S. Reflecting the accumulation of changes at the metropolitan level, the nationwide share of adults in lower-income households increased from 28% to 29% and the share in upper-income households rose from 17% to 20% during the period. 2Īmong American adults overall, including those from outside the 229 areas examined in depth, the share living in middle-income households fell from 55% in 2000 to 51% in 2014. But this was accompanied by rapid growth in the share of adults in upper-income households in Midland, which doubled from 18% in 2000 to 37% in 2014. The share of adults in middle-income households in Midland decreased from 53% in 2000 to 43% in 2014, the fourth-largest drop in the nation. It was also an unambiguous signal of economic loss as the share of adults in lower-income households in Goldsboro increased sharply, from 27% in 2000 to 41% in 2014.īut in Midland-an energy-based economy that benefited from the rise in oil prices from 2000 to 2014-the shrinking middle class was a sign of financial gains. This was one of the greatest decreases among the 229 metropolitan areas analyzed. In Goldsboro-an old railroad junction town and home to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base-the share of adults who are middle income fell from 60% in 2000 to 48% in 2014, or by 12 percentage points. The possibility that a shrinking of the middle class may signal a movement into either the lower-income tier or the upper-income tier is exemplified by the experiences of Goldsboro, NC, and Midland, TX-one community buffeted by broader economic forces and the other buttressed by them.
The shifting economic fortunes of localities were not an either/or proposition: Some 108 metropolitan areas experienced growth in both the lower- and upper-income tiers.
The share of adults in upper-income households increased in 172 of the 229 metropolitan areas, even as the share of adults in lower-income households rose in 160 metropolitan areas from 2000 to 2014. With relatively fewer Americans in the middle-income tier, the economic tiers above and below have grown in significance over time. 1 Together, these areas accounted for 76% of the nation’s population in 2014. That is the maximum number of areas that could be identified in the Census Bureau data used for the analysis and for which data are available for both 20 (an accompanying text box provides more detail). This report encompasses 229 of the 381 “metropolitan statistical areas” as defined by the federal government. The changes at the metropolitan level, the subject of this in-depth look at the American middle class, demonstrate that the national trend is the result of widespread declines in localities all around the country. The shrinking of the middle class at the national level, to the point where it may no longer be the economic majority in the U.S., was documented in an earlier analysis by the Pew Research Center.
The decrease in the middle-class share was often substantial, measuring 6 percentage points or more in 53 metropolitan areas, compared with a 4-point drop nationally. metropolitan areas examined in a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data. From 2000 to 2014 the share of adults living in middle-income households fell in 203 of the 229 U.S. The American middle class is losing ground in metropolitan areas across the country, affecting communities from Boston to Seattle and from Dallas to Milwaukee.
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