{"id":40904,"date":"2012-08-22T12:17:21","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T17:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2012\/08\/22\/the-lost-decade-of-the-middle-class-2\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:09:19","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:09:19","slug":"the-lost-decade-of-the-middle-class-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2012\/08\/22\/the-lost-decade-of-the-middle-class-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle-Income Economics and Middle-Class Attitudes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A new Pew Research Center report documents a<a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2012\/08\/22\/the-lost-decade-of-the-middle-class\/\"> &#8220;lost decade&#8221; for middle-income Americans<\/a>, analyzing government data that shows a decline in economic well-being and exploring findings from a new survey that adults who describe themselves as middle class are somewhat more downbeat about their finances and their children&#8217;s future than they used to be.<!--more--><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to data from the\u00a0Census Bureau&#8217;s Current Population Survey, mean family incomes declined overall and for each income quintile from 2000 to 2010; this was the first decade since record-keeping began in the 1950s that all income quintiles declined.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition, based on data going back to 1970, households in the nation&#8217;s upper-income tier now take in a larger share of the nation&#8217;s aggregate households income than they used to, while the shares for the middle-income and lower-income tiers have declined. \u00a0One reason for this trend is that upper-income households have made larger income gains than other households over recent decades. In addition, the share of adults who are in the middle-income tier (defined as living in households with two-thirds to double the national median income) has shrunk in recent decades: 51% of adults resided in such households in 2010, compared with 61% in 1970.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Looking at wealth data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, the net worth of middle-income families also declined over the decade. Based on data from 2001 to 2010, median net worth&#8211;defined as assets minus debt&#8211;declined 28% for these families, erasing two decades worth of gains.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A new Pew Research survey, conducted from July 16-26, finds that 49% of American adults describe themselves as middle class; 53% said the same in a 2008 Pew Research survey. Among these self-described middle-class adults, 85% say it is more difficult than a decade ago for the middle class to maintain its standard of living.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This posting describes and links to a new report, &#8220;The Lost Decade of the Middle Class,&#8221; that combines income data from the Census Bureau, wealth data from the Survey of Consumer Finances and findings from a new survey to paint a portrait of diminished finances and muted hopes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"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":"","relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[243,237],"tags":[],"bylines":[950],"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-40904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-class","category-personal-finances","bylines-dvera-cohn","formats-report","research-teams-social-trends"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":292,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2012\/08\/22\/the-lost-decade-of-the-middle-class-2\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":null,"next_post":null,"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"Middle-Income 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