Middle Class

Extracted Attributes

• Subdivisions

  Upper middle class (highly educated professionals) and lower middle class (semi-professionals, skilled craftsmen)

• Key Characteristics

  Control of significant human capital, discretionary income (roughly one-third remaining after basic needs), and economic security

• Wikidata Discrepancy

  The provided Wikidata ID (Q3857049) refers to the American punk band 'The Middle Class' (formed in 1976) rather than the sociological concept.

• Common Definition (Income-based)

  Two-thirds to double the national median household income (Pew Research)

• Historical Origin of Modern Term

  1913 UK Registrar-General's report by statistician T. H. C. Stevenson

• Alternative Definition (Quintiles)

  The middle three quintiles (60 percent) of a nation's income ladder

Timeline

• The modern usage of the term 'middle-class' is established in the UK Registrar-General's report by statistician T. H. C. Stevenson. (Source: Web Search)

  1913-01-01

• Sociologist C. Wright Mills publishes 'White Collar: The American Middle Classes', one of the first major studies on the topic in America. (Source: Web Search)

  1951-01-01

• The Economist asserts that over half of the world's population belongs to the middle class due to rapid growth in emerging countries. (Source: }]}]}```of course, the source for the last timeline event is )

  2009-02-01

Middle class

The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Common definitions for the middle class range from the middle fifth of individuals on a nation's income ladder, to everyone but the poorest and wealthiest 20%. Theories such as "Paradox of Interest" use decile groups and wealth distribution data to determine the size and wealth share of the middle class. Terminology differs in the United States, where the term middle class describes people who in other countries would be described as working class. There has been significant global middle-class growth over time. In February 2009, The Economist asserted that over half of the world's population belonged to the middle class, as a result of rapid growth in emerging countries. It characterized the middle class as having a substantial amount of discretionary income and defined it as beginning at the point where people have roughly a third of their income left for discretionary spending after paying for basic food and shelter.

Web Search Results

• Middle class - Wikipedia

  Not to be confused with Working class. The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation "Job (role)"), income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Common definitions for the middle class range from the middle fifth of individuals on a nation's income ladder, to everyone but the poorest and wealthiest 20%. Theories such as "Paradox of Interest" use decile groups and wealth distribution data to determine the size and wealth share of the middle class. [...] The modern usage of the term "middle-class", however, dates to the 1913 UK Registrar-General's report, in which the statistician T. H. C. Stevenson identified the middle class as those falling between the upper-class and the working-class. The middle class includes: professionals, managers, and senior civil servants. The chief defining characteristic of membership in the middle-class is control of significant human capital while still being under the dominion of the elite upper class, who control much of the financial and legal capital in the world. [...] The term "middle class" has had several and sometimes contradictory meanings. Friedrich Engels saw the category as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry in late-feudalist society.[need quotation to verify] While the nobility owned much of the countryside, and the peasantry worked it, a new bourgeoisie (literally "town-dwellers") arose around mercantile functions in the city. In France, the middle classes helped drive the French Revolution. This "middle class" eventually overthrew the ruling monarchists of feudal society, thus becoming the new ruling class or bourgeoisie in the new capitalist-dominated societies.

• American middle class - Wikipedia

  ## Sub-divisions [edit] The middle class by one definition consists of an upper middle class, made up of professionals distinguished by exceptionally high educational attainment as well as high economic security; and a lower middle class, consisting of semi-professionals. While the groups overlap, differences between those at the center of both groups are considerable. The lower middle class has lower educational attainment, considerably less workplace autonomy, and lower incomes than the upper middle class. With the emergence of a two-tier labor market, the economic benefits and life chances of upper middle class professionals have grown considerably compared to those of the lower middle class. [...] One of the first major studies of the middle class in America was White Collar: The American Middle Classes, published in 1951 by sociologist C. Wright Mills. Later sociologists such as Dennis Gilbert "Dennis Gilbert (sociologist)") commonly divide the middle class into two sub-groups: the professional or upper middle class (~15-20% of all households) consisting of highly educated, salaried professionals and managers, and the lower middle class (~33% of all households) consisting mostly of semi-professionals, skilled craftsmen and lower-level management. Middle-class persons commonly have a comfortable standard of living, significant economic security, considerable work autonomy and rely on their expertise to sustain themselves. [...] Members of the middle class belong to diverse groups which overlap with each other. Overall, middle-class persons, especially upper-middle-class individuals, are characterized by conceptualizing, creating and consulting. Thus, college education is one of the main indicators of middle-class status. Largely attributed to the nature of middle-class occupations, middle class values tend to emphasize independence, adherence to intrinsic standards, valuing innovation and respecting non-conformity. The middle class is more politically active than other demographics. The middle classes are very influential as they encompass the majority of voters, writers, teachers, journalists and editors. Most societal trends in the U.S. originate within the middle classes.

• [PDF] Defining and Measuring the Middle Class | AIER

  Thomas Piketty has defined “the middle class” in terms of wealth holdings. As noted earlier, some wealth is important for a middle-class existence. Assets give the middle-class security; they provide a buffer against illness, disability, or unemployment. They also enable middle-class families to help put their children through college. And perhaps most important of all, middle-class individuals want to be able to retire, a subject AIER’s research fellow Luke Delorme explores in “How to Formulate a Retirement Spending Plan” (2015). Since Social Security only replaces around 42 percent of previous earnings, the ability to retire requires that people put aside some money or accumulate some assets that can be spent down in retirement. This means that to be middle class, some wealth is [...] they are middle class or ask them to classify themselves as either lower, middle, or upper class. Then we can define “the middle class” in terms of the income level and percentage of respondents who claim to be middle class. For example, if at least half of those with incomes between $30,000 and $150,000 say they are middle class, then we can consider this range as encompassing the middle class. This approach has the advantage of coming up with income ranges for the middle class that most people would recognize as being acceptable and of correctly classifying them. However, it also has a number of limitations. Perhaps the biggest problem with this approach is that most people in the U.S. consider themselves to be in the middle class. According to a 2008 Pew Research Center (2014) survey, [...] also adopts this method of defining “the middle class,” regarding anyone with a college degree as being in the upper class. Although Putnam’s book focuses on the rich and poor and ignores the middle class and middle-class children, it implicitly contains a definition of “middle class.” For Putnam, upper-class households are those where at least one parent has a college degree and lower-class households are those where neither parent has education beyond high school. The middle class thus becomes those in between these two cases— households that include one adult who has gone beyond high school (maybe they have an associate’s degree) but with no adult possessing a four-year college degree. A first problem here is that this ignores income entirely when defining the middle class. As a

• Defining the middle class: Cash, credentials, or culture? | Brookings

  A broader and commonly used definition of the middle class includes the middle three quintiles, encompassing 60 percent of all households. In this case, middle-class incomes range from $30,000 to $130,000. Others prefer to use two quintiles: Reeves and Busette identify a “lower-income” middle class as the second and third income quintiles, or those with incomes between $30,000 and $85,000. Perotti goes in the opposite direction, choosing the third and fourth quintiles. [...] Some authors are careful to avoid the word class when focusing solely on income. Gornick and Jäntti, for instance, write the middle class “might more accurately be described as those households that fall in the ‘middle’—that is, in the middle of the income distribution.” Similarly, Williams and Boushey call their group, which is primarily defined as everyone between the bottom third and the top fifth of the income distribution, the “missing middle.” Among most economists, however, the term middle class has largely become synonymous with middle income. [...] Wolff defines the middle class as the middle three quintiles of the wealth distribution. His analysis also reveals differences in the ways that the middle and upper classes store wealth. The wealth of the top quintile is highly concentrated in investment assets, including real estate, business equity, stocks, and bonds. By contrast, housing makes up more than three-fifths of the assets of the middle three quintiles, though mortgage debt amounts to almost half of middle-class home values. Homeownership might indeed be a defining feature of the middle class—but according to Wolff, so is mortgage debt.

• Are you in the U.S. middle class? Try our income calculator

  In our analysis, “middle-income” Americans are adults whose annual household income is two-thirds to double the national median, after incomes have been adjusted for household size. Lower-income households have incomes less than two-thirds of the median, and upper-income households have incomes more than double the median. American adults refers to those ages 18 and older who reside in a household (as opposed to group quarters).

• Instance Of

  Q215380

• Inception Date

  1/1/1976