U.S. places with the largest shares of middle class residents

Depending on where you live, what’s considered a middle income may not actually afford you a middle class lifestyle.

Still, over half of U.S. adults self-identify as middle class or upper-middle class, according to a 2024 Gallup Poll. That number has remained around 50% or higher for at least the last two decades.

The numbers tell a similar story. Just over half of Americans — 51% — were considered middle class in 2023, according to Pew Research. The organization defines middle class as income between two-thirds and double the national median household income, after incomes have been adjusted for household size.

That’s a significant drop from 1971, when 61% of U.S. households were middle income, Pew reports.

But some areas have larger middle class populations. Middle income residents make up 65% of the population in Dover, Delaware — the largest share of over 200 metropolitan areas Pew analyzed. There, you need to earn between $36,292 and $108,876 a year to be considered middle class.

For context, the U.S. median household income was $74,580 in 2022, according to the latest Census Bureau data. That means middle class households earned between $49,720 and $149,160, based on Pew’s definition.

Here are the 10 metropolitan areas with the largest shares of middle class residents, according to Pew, and 2022 local median household incomes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey estimates.

At 61%, public administration jobs have one of the highest shares of middle earners compared with other industries, Pew found. That may contribute to why Dover, the capital of Delaware, has such as a high volume of middle class residents. Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota, may have a similar benefit. 

The Midwest is the best-represented U.S. region in the ranking of metro areas with the largest shares of middle class populations with four places in the top 10 hailing from three states — Wisconsin, North Dakota and Michigan.

The middle-income populations here benefit from mid to low-costs of living compared with the rest of the country.

Wisconsin and North Dakota fall around the middle of all 50 states ranked by cost of living estimates, according to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center state-by-state cost of living index, based on the Council for Community and Economic Research survey data. Michigan has an even lower cost of living — the 10th lowest in the country, according to the index.

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