About half of U.S. adults (52%) lived in center-income households in 2018, according to a new Pew Research Center assay of authorities data. Roughly three-in-x (29%) were in lower-income households and 19% were in upper-income households.

Our figurer below, updated with 2018 information, lets yous find out which group you are in – first compared with other adults in your metropolitan area and among American adults overall, and so compared with other adults in the United States similar to you in pedagogy, age, race or ethnicity, and marital condition.

Our latest analysis shows that the share of adults who live in heart-income households varies widely across the 260 metropolitan areas examined, from 39% in Las Cruces, New Mexico, to 67% in Ogden-Clearfield, Utah. The share of adults who alive in lower-income households ranges from 16% in Ogden-Clearfield to 49% in Las Cruces. The estimated share living in upper-income households is greatest in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California (34%) and the smallest in El Centro, California (7%).

Lower-income adults, already under significant fiscal pressure, have been particularly vulnerable to the economical fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, co-ordinate to a Pew Research Center survey conducted April 29-May v, 2020. The survey found that 36% of lower-income adults and 28% of centre-income adults said they had lost a job or taken a pay cut due to the coronavirus outbreak, compared with 22% of upper-income adults. In a Eye survey conducted in April 2020, only 23% of lower-income adults said they had rainy day funds that could concluding iii months, compared with 48% of middle-income adults and 75% of upper-income adults.

Pew Research Centre designed this reckoner every bit a way for users to see, based on the Center's analysis, where they appear in the distribution of U.South. adults by income tier, as well every bit how they compare with others in their own demographic profile.

In our analysis, "middle-income" Americans are adults whose annual household income is ii-thirds to double the national median, after incomes take been adjusted for household size. Lower-income households have incomes lower than two-thirds of the median, and upper-income households have incomes that are more than double the median.

In 2018, the national middle-income range was well-nigh $48,500 to $145,500 annually for a household of three. Lower-income households had incomes less than $48,500 and upper-income households had incomes greater than $145,500 (incomes in 2018 dollars).

These income ranges vary with the cost of living in metropolitan areas and with household size. A household in a metropolitan surface area with a higher-than-boilerplate cost of living or ane with four or more people needs more $48,500 to exist included in the centre-income tier. Households in less expensive areas or with less than three people need less than $48,500 to be considered centre income. Additional details on the methodology are available in our earlier analyses.

How the income calculator works

The calculator takes your household income and adjusts it for the size of your household. The income is revised upward for households that are below average in size and downward for those of above average size. This way, each household'due south income is fabricated equivalent to the income of a three-person household (the whole number nearest to the average size of a U.S. household, which was 2.v in 2018).

Pew Research Center does non store or share whatsoever of the information you lot enter.

Your size-adapted household income and the cost of living in your area are the factors nosotros apply to determine your income tier. Center-income households – those with an income that is ii-thirds to double the U.S. median household income – had incomes ranging from about $48,500 to $145,500 in 2018. Lower-income households had incomes less than $48,500 and upper-income households had incomes greater than $145,500 (all figures computed for three-person households, adjusted for the cost of living in a metropolitan area, and expressed in 2018 dollars).

The following example illustrates how toll-of-living adjustment for a given expanse was calculated: Jackson, Tennessee, is a relatively inexpensive surface area, with a price level in 2018 that was nineteen.0% less than the national boilerplate. The San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metropolitan area in California is i of the most expensive areas, with a toll level that was 31.6% college than the national average. Thus, to step over the national middle-grade threshold of $48,500, a household in Jackson needs an income of only about $39,300, or nineteen.0% less than the national standard. But a household in the San Francisco area needs a reported income of about $63,800, or 31.6% more than the U.S. norm, to bring together the centre class.

The income calculator encompasses 260 of some 384 metropolitan areas in the U.S., as defined past the Office of Management and Upkeep. If you live in an expanse outside of one of these 260 areas, the calculator reports the estimates for your state.

The second part of our calculator asks you more questions virtually your education, age, race or ethnicity, and marital status. This allows you to see how other adults who are like to yous demographically are distributed beyond lower-, middle- and upper-income tiers in the U.S. overall. Information technology does not recompute your economic tier.

Note: This post and interactive calculator were originally published December. 9, 2015, and have been updated to reflect the Center's new analysis.

Jesse Bennett is a former enquiry analyst focusing on social and demographic trends research at Pew Enquiry Heart.

Richard Fry is a senior researcher focusing on economics and education at Pew Enquiry Center.