About half of Americans, 52% of U.S. adults, are considered "middle class," according to analysis by the Pew Research Center.
That's remained relatively stable since 2011, when Pew found that 51% of Americans were considered middle class. That said, those who are considered middle class varies widely based on where you live, as well as how many people live with you.
Many also define the demographic more broadly and include factors such as race, education, age and marital status. The Brookings Institution, for example, says that the middle class can be defined by economic factors such as income, education or even cultural attitudes and mindset.
To help you figure out where you stand, Pew Research rolled out a new calculator on Thursday that tells you whether you're part of the upper, middle or lower class. The calculator, which uses the latest available data from 2018, allows you to put in your state, metropolitan area, household income before taxes and the number of people in your household to run the basic calculation.
Pew defines the middle class as households that have an annual pre-tax income that is at least two-thirds to double the national median. That ranged from $48,500 to $145,500 in 2018. When you enter your own information, Pew's calculator adjusts for the cost of living your specific area of the country.
While the middle class has remained relatively stable over the last decade, it has shrunk when looking at a longer time span, Pew reports. About 61% of Americans lived in middle-income households in 1971, compared to just 51% in 2019.
Over the past several decades, there's been a widening income gap between upper-income households and everyone else. The typical American income has grown only modestly in this century, and household wealth has not returned to its pre-recession level. Real wages effectively remained stalled last year, showing only a 1% year-over-year increase, according to the PayScale Index.
Looking longer term, Payscale found median wages, when adjusted for inflation, actually declined 9% since 2006.
About a third of Americans, 32%, report that they typically run out of money before their next paycheck hits, according to a survey released by Salary Finance prior to the coronavirus pandemic of over 2,700 U.S. adults working at companies with over 500 employees. About 31% of respondents earning over $100,000 also regularly experience a budget shortfall before payday.
Check out: The best credit cards of 2020 could earn you over $1,000 in 5 years
Don't miss: Here's how much money you have to earn to be considered middle-class
