WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) — The Pew Research Center found there are more high- and low-income households combined in America, edging out the once-strong middle class as the driving force behind the economy.
Researchers found the middle class — defined by Pew as households that earn two-thirds to double the nation’s median income — now makes up 50 percent of the nation’s population, down from 61 percent in 1971. Pew found 120.8 million American adults were living in middle-income homes at the beginning of 2015, compared with 121.3 adults living in upper- and lower-income households, “a demographic shift that could signal a tipping point.”
The report found middle-class earners are falling behind financially. The gap in income and wealth between the upper- and middle-class households has grown larger in the past four decades or so. The median middle-class income grew 34 percent from 1970 to 2014, while upper-income households grew by 47 percent.
“Although 2014 incomes are generally higher than in 1970, all households experienced a lengthy period of decline in the 21st century thanks to the 2001 recession and the Great Recession of 2007-09,” researchers found.
The middle class has long been considered the American dream and is “at the heart of the economic platforms of many presidential candidates ahead of the 2016 election.”
“Policymakers are engaged in debates about the need to raise the floor on wages and on how best to curb rising income inequality,” Pew researchers Rakesh Kochhar and Richard Fry said in the report. “Meanwhile, President Barack Obama uses the term ‘middle-class economics’ to describe his economic agenda. And a flurry of new research points to the potential of a larger middle class to provide the economic boost sought by many advanced economies.”
Comment count on this article reflects comments made on Breitbart.com and Facebook. Visit Breitbart's Facebook Page.