The fate of the middle class is one of the central concerns of American politics and economics. How many people fall in the middle class varies from state to state.
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.
Washington, DC, had a smaller middle class than any state, with just 36.6% of households in the capital in the middle-income bracket. Because it is not a state, we've omitted it from the following list.
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Here are the 15 states with the smallest 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%:
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15. Georgia: 45.0% of households are middle income
14. South Carolina: 44.8% of households are middle income
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13. Connecticut: 44.2% of households are middle income
12. Arkansas: 43.9% of households are middle income
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11. Rhode Island: 43.5% of households are middle income
10. Kentucky: 43.4% of households are middle income
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9. California: 43.1% of households are middle income
8. Alabama: 43.0% of households are middle income
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7. Mississippi: 42.4% of households are middle income
6. New Mexico: 42.2% of households are middle income
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5. New Jersey: 42.2% of households are middle income
4. New York: 42.0% of households are middle income
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3. West Virginia: 42.0% of households are middle income
2. Louisiana: 40.9% of households are middle income
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1. Massachusetts: 40.7% of households are middle income
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