This statistic shows the median household income in the United States from 1970 to 2020, by income tier. In 2020, the median household income for the middle class stood at 90,131 U.S. dollars, which was approximately a 50 percent increase from 1970. However, the median income of upper income households in the U.S. increased by almost 70 percent compared to 1970.

By 2030, the middle-class population in Asia-Pacific is expected to increase from 1.38 billion people in 2015 to 3.49 billion people. In comparison, the middle-class population of sub-Saharan Africa is expected to increase from 114 million in 2015 to 212 million in 2030.

Worldwide wealth

While the middle-class has been on the rise, there is still a huge disparity in global wealth and income. The United States had the highest number of individuals belonging to the top one percent of wealth holders, and the value of global wealth is only expected to increase over the coming years. Around 57 percent of the world’s population had assets valued at less than 10,000 U.S. dollars; while less than one percent had assets of more than million U.S. dollars. Asia had the highest percentage of investable assets in the world in 2018, whereas Oceania had the highest percent of non-investable assets.

The middle-class

The middle class is the group of people whose income falls in the middle of the scale. China accounted for over half of the global population for middle-class wealth in 2017. In the United States, the debate about the middle class “disappearing” has been a popular topic due to the increase in wealth to the top billionaires in the nation. Due to this, there have been arguments to increase taxes on the rich to help support the middle-class.

In the financial year 2021, a majority of Indian households fell under the aspirers category, earning between 125,000 and 500,000 Indian rupees a year. On the other hand, about three percent of households that same year, accounted for the rich, earning over 3 million rupees annually. The middle class more than doubled that year compared to 14 percent in financial year 2005.

Middle-class income group and the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic specifically during the lockdown in March 2020, loss of incomes hit the entire household income spectrum. However, research showed the severest affected groups were the upper middle- and middle-class income brackets. In addition, unemployment rates were rampant nationwide that further lead to a dismally low GDP. Despite job recoveries over the last few months, improvement in incomes were insignificant.

Economic inequality

While India maybe one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it is also one of the most vulnerable and severely afflicted economies in terms of economic inequality. The vast discrepancy between the rich and poor has been prominent since the last three decades. The rich continue to grow richer at a faster pace while the impoverished struggle more than ever before to earn a minimum wage. The widening gaps in the economic structure affect women and children the most. This is a call for reinforcement in in the country’s social structure that emphasizes access to quality education and universal healthcare services.

This statistic shows the median household income in the United States from 1990 to 2023 in 2023 U.S. dollars. The median household income was 80,610 U.S. dollars in 2023, an increase from the previous year. Household incomeThe median household income depicts the income of households, including the income of the householder and all other individuals aged 15 years or over living in the household. Income includes wages and salaries, unemployment insurance, disability payments, child support payments received, regular rental receipts, as well as any personal business, investment, or other kinds of income received routinely. The median household income in the United States varies from state to state. In 2020, the median household income was 86,725 U.S. dollars in Massachusetts, while the median household income in Mississippi was approximately 44,966 U.S. dollars at that time. Household income is also used to determine the poverty line in the United States. In 2021, about 11.6 percent of the U.S. population was living in poverty. The child poverty rate, which represents people under the age of 18 living in poverty, has been growing steadily over the first decade since the turn of the century, from 16.2 percent of the children living below the poverty line in year 2000 to 22 percent in 2010. In 2021, it had lowered to 15.3 percent. The state with the widest gap between the rich and the poor was New York, with a Gini coefficient score of 0.51 in 2019. The Gini coefficient is calculated by looking at average income rates. A score of zero would reflect perfect income equality and a score of one indicates a society where one person would have all the money and all other people have nothing.

In the financial year 2021, the number of super-rich households earning more than 20 million Indian rupees went up to 1.81 million from 1.06 million in the financial year 2016. This was an annual growth of 11.3 percent. The number is expected to grow to over nine million in the financial year 2031 and 32 million households in the financial year 2047. This will be the fastest growth across all income categories. On the other hand, destitute classified Indian households with earnings of less than 125 thousand annually decreased only marginally to 45.17 million in financial year 2021 from 46.5 million in 2016. However, it is estimated that the number of destitute households will fall to just 7.2 million by the financial year 2047.

As of July 2024, roughly 40.4 percent of respondents claimed to belong to the middle class, followed by the lower class or poor at nearly 20 percent. Another 14 percent of respondents said they were lower middle class.

According to exit polling in ten key states of the 2024 presidential election in the United States, 46 percent of voters with a 2023 household income of 30,000 U.S. dollars or less reported voting for Donald Trump. In comparison, 51 percent of voters with a total family income of 100,000 to 199,999 U.S. dollars reported voting for Kamala Harris.

In the first quarter of 2024, almost two-thirds percent of the total wealth in the United States was owned by the top 10 percent of earners. In comparison, the lowest 50 percent of earners only owned 2.5 percent of the total wealth. Income inequality in the U.S. Despite the idea that the United States is a country where hard work and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps will inevitably lead to success, this is often not the case. In 2023, 7.4 percent of U.S. households had an annual income under 15,000 U.S. dollars. With such a small percentage of people in the United States owning such a vast majority of the country’s wealth, the gap between the rich and poor in America remains stark. The top one percent The United States follows closely behind China as the country with the most billionaires in the world. Elon Musk alone held around 219 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. Over the past 50 years, the CEO-to-worker compensation ratio has exploded, causing the gap between rich and poor to grow, with some economists theorizing that this gap is the largest it has been since right before the Great Depression.

A breakdown of annual household incomes in Japan showed that around seven percent of households earned less than one million Japanese yen per year as of 2023. That year, the average annual household income of Japanese households was approximately 5.2 million Japanese yen.

In 2019, most of Italians assumed to belong to the middle class. More specifically, 52 percent of individuals defined their social status as middle class. Moreover, 37 percent of Italians stated to be part of the lower social class. Data for social class perception suggested that the occupation with the highest share of upper-class people was being a student. At the same time, freelance professional was most popular job position among middle class citizens, while the majority of unemployed people felt to belong to the lower class.

How much do Italians earn on average?

From 2006 to 2015, gross household disposable income per capita in Italy was fluctuating with no precise pattern. In the next three years, however, gross income per capita steadily increased until peaking above 31 thousand U.S. dollars in 2018. This figure put Italy at the 17th place in the ranking of OECD countries with the gross disposable income per household.

Income inequalities in Italy

National average figures can be quite misleading. In Italy, substantial economic differences across regions and also due to gender can be observed. Inhabitants of the South and the Islands earn on average around ten thousand euros less annually than Italians from the North East. Moreover, female households’ average net income in 2017 was eight thousand euros smaller than male households’ income.

Over 61 million Russians aged 20 years and above, or approximately 55 percent of the total adult population of the country, had wealth under 10,000 U.S. dollars in 2022. To compare, on average around the globe, the share of residents belonging to this wealth range was measured at 34.4 percent in the same year. Economic inequality in Russia The latest available data by the World Bank recorded Russia’s Gini index, used as a measurement of income or wealth inequality, at 36. The organization classified Russia as an upper-middle-income economy. Over 60 percent of Russians considered themselves belonging to the middle class in 2020. HNWIs in Russia Approximately 0.4 percent of Russian adults, or 408,000 residents, owned over one million U.S. dollars, or were referred to as high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs). In 2021, the total wealth of the adult population in the country reached nearly 4.4 trillion U.S. dollars. A significant portion of it belonged to roughly 6,200 ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) whose net worth exceeded 30 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2023, the highest salary-earning households in Tokyo Prefecture made over 1.7 million Japanese yen on average per month. By comparison, the gross income of the lowest-paid households in the prefecture amounted to around 150 thousand yen a month.

Between January and March 2024, the average income for women working in Lima, Peru amounted to around 1,658 Peruvian soles per month. In turn, the average monthly income for men stood at 2,249.4 Peruvian soles, about 591 soles more than women.

Average salaries in Lima, Peru According to the employment survey carried out by Peru's National Statistics Institute (INEI, for its acronym in Spanish), the average income of legal workers based in the Peruvian capital does not only vary by gender but also among different age groups and economic sectors. For instance, an employee aged 45 or more can earn around 66 percent more a worker who is up to 24 years old. In turn, service sector workers have higher monthly salaries than employees in manufacture or retail.

Employment in Peru More than half the working population in Peru is considered self-employed, one of the highest shares in Latin America. Even though Peru's unemployment rate has remained below four percent since 2009 (except for 2020 and 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic), the share of people out of employment in Lima was considerably higher than the national average.

In 2021, the poverty rate in France reached 14.5 percent. In recent years, poverty in France has been increasing, affecting both unemployed and working people. In fact, according to Insee, 9.2 percent of economically active persons had a living standard inferior to the poverty rate in 2021.

The increase of poverty in France

Poverty in France reached its highest rate in 2018. That year, almost 15 percent of the French population was living below the poverty line, which means that their income was less than 60 percent of the median income in the country. Despite a significant decrease between 2000 and 2004, when the rate went from 13.6 down to 12.6 percent, poverty has been rising in France in recent years. Studies have shown that the number of poor people increased in France, reaching approximately 9.3 million individuals in 2020, while 11,779 thousand people were at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

Poverty affecting youth and middle classes

Poverty seems to affect mainly younger generations. In 2016, 12.5 percent of French aged between 18 and 29 years old were considered poor. In comparison, only 2.2 percent of French aged 65 and 74 years old were in the same situation. Youth unemployment in France, one of the highest in Europe, might explain this phenomenon. However, the middle class is not spared from the rise of poverty either. In 2017, 52.4 percent of French middle-income households were having difficulties to make ends meet.