August 23, 2012
As the 2012 presidential candidates prepare their closing arguments to America’s middle class, they are courting a group that has endured a lost decade for economic well-being. Since 2000, the middle class has shrunk in size, fallen backward in income and wealth, and shed some, but by no means all, of its characteristic faith in the future.
These stark assessments are based on findings from a new nationally representative Pew Research Center survey that includes 1,287 adults who describe themselves as middle class, supplemented by the Center’s analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve.
Fully 85% of self-described middle-class adults say it is more difficult now than it was
a decade ago for middle-class people to maintain their standard of living. Their downbeat take on their economic situation comes at the end of a decade in which, for the first time since the end of World War II, mean family incomes declined for Americans in all income
tiers. But the middle-income tier is the only one that also shrunk in size, a trend that has continued over the past four decades.
The full report and a short video of the key findings are available here. You also can chat via Facebook with the authors of the report on Thursday, Aug. 23, at 12:30 p.m. EDT. Learn more here.
Full Report:
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