The 15 states with the largest middle class

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• The size of the American middle class varies from state to state.
• Using data from the US Census Bureau, we found how many households fall between 2/3 and 200% of the median household income in each state.
• Here are the 15 states with the largest share of households falling in that middle-income group.
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The number of Americans who have middle-class incomes varies from state to state.

The middle class faces a few major financial challenges compared to their wealthier peers. According to an INSIDER/Morning Consult poll, respondents who described themselves as "middle class" as opposed to "affluent" had higher levels of debt and smaller retirement savings accounts.

We recently took a look at the US states with the smallest middle classes. Here are 15 states where the middle class is quite a bit larger.

In an analysis of class in America, the Pew Research Center classified households as middle-income if they fell between 2/3 and 200% of the national median household income. We used that definition to find how many households in each US state had middle-class incomes.

According to the US Census Bureau's 2017 American Community Survey, the median household income that year (the most recent for which data is available) was $60,336. Using data from the Minnesota Population Center's 2017 American Community Survey Integrated Public-Use Microdata Series, we counted up how many households in each state had incomes between 2/3 of that median (or $40,224) and double that median (or $120,672).

Here are the 15 states with the largest share of households falling in that middle-income bracket, along with the share of lower-income households below 2/3 the national median, and the share of upper-income households above 200%: