A new study from the Pew Research Center says the American middle class is stable in size but is slowly losing ground due to upper-income families.
According to Senior Researcher Rakesh Kochhar, 52 percent of American adults lived in middle-class households in 2016. This percentage has remained the same since 2011, but financial gains during this time were modest compared to higher-income households.
Pew Research's analysis of middle-income Americans are adults whose annual household income is two-thirds to double the national median.
In 2016, the national middle-income range was about $45,200 to $135,600 annually for a household of three. Lower-income households had incomes less than $45,200 and upper-income households had incomes greater than $135,600 (incomes in 2016 dollars), Kochhar said.
Find out where you are in the distribution of Americans by using the income calculator.
