How Much You Need to Earn in Every State
Story by Giulia Carbonaro •6h
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In this picture: Customers shop at a Costco store on August 31, 2023, in Novato, California. According to a report by the Commerce Department, consumer spending rose 0.8% in July beating expectations of 0.7%.© Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The American middle class, those who are neither rich nor poor, has been shrinking in the past few decades while the number of people at the bottom and the very top of the country’s economic spectrum grew, according to recent studies.
The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington D.C., defines the middle class as those who earn between two-thirds and twice as much as the U.S. median household income. The latest data from the Census Bureau reports that the country’s median household income was $74,580 in 2022, a 2.3 percent slide from 2021 when it was estimated to be $76,330.
For decades, the middle class has been considered the main driver of American economic growth and prosperity. But things have changed in the last half a century.
According to Pew, the middle class has been steadily shrinking since the 1970s, dropping from 61 percent in 1971 to 50 percent in 2021. The rising cost of living since 2020 is likely to have played a role in pushing many outside of the middle class.
On the other hand, the two other extremes of the economic spectrum gained a bigger slice of the American population—meaning that more people were poor, and more people were rich. The number of adults on a lower income grew from 25 percent in 1971 to 29 percent in 2021. Those with an upper income surged from 14 percent in 1971 to 21 percent in 2021.
In the last few years, many Americans have been feeling the pinch from rising prices and interest rates, though inflation has now fallen back to 3.7 percent from a peak of 9.1 percent in June 2022.
So what does it take to be considered part of the middle class today, and who’s in it?
The household income necessary to be considered part of the American middle class varies from state to state, according to calculations made by Consumer Affairs using Pew Research Center’s 2018 data and the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator.
In 2023, the minimum annual income for a family of four to be considered middle class ranged between $51,798 in Alabama and $81,396 in the District of Columbia.
Here’s a full list:
- Alabama: $51,798
- Alaska: $62,897
- Arizona: $57,964
- Arkansas: $51,798
- California: $69,064
- Colorado: $69,064
- Connecticut: $80,163
- Delaware: $67,830
- District of Columbia: $81,396
- Florida: $67,835
- Georgia: $65,364
- Hawaii: $82,630
- Idaho: $62,897
- Illinois: $67,830
- Indiana: $62,897
- Iowa: $61,664
- Kansas: $65,364
- Kentucky: $61,664
- Louisiana: $61,664
- Maine: $67,830
- Maryland: $73,997
- Massachusetts: $76,463
- Michigan: $64,130
- Minnesota: $67,830
- Mississippi: $60,431
- Missouri: $61,664
- Montana: $65,364
- Nebraska: $62,897
- Nevada: $66,597
- New Hampshire: $73,997
- New Jersey: $80,163
- New Mexico: $64,130
- New York: $81,396
- North Carolina: $64,130
- North Dakota: $62,897
- Ohio: $61,664
- Oklahoma: $61,664
- Oregon: $70,297
- Pennsylvania: $67.830
- Rhode Island: $69,064
- South Carolina: $61,664
- South Dakota: $61,664
- Tennessee: $62,897
- Texas: $66,597
- Utah: $67,830
- Vermont: $71,530
- Virginia: $61,664
- Washington: $73,997
- Wisconsin: $64,130
- West Virginia: $59,197
- Wyoming: $64,130
