Our new analysis uncovers the exact income cutoff to be considered upper-middle class in each of the 50 states. The results underscore the serious inequities at play when it comes to income requirements, further illustrating the diverse economic realities throughout the country.
Here in the United States, you’re upper-middle class if you make $117,000 to $150,000 a year. This low-income threshold determines where they sit on the economic caste system. This range is meant to illustrate the low and high-end nationwide thresholds, respectively. There is immense disparity across these numbers between each state. Local cost of living and median household income levels are very strong factors in these differences.
In high-cost states, like Mississippi’s upper-middle class income starts around $85,423. Households in neighboring Maryland have a much more daunting threshold, with the low end of the scale starting at $158,125. The upper limit has a high end of $203,304 for upper-middle class in Maryland. This eye-popping divergence highlights the extent to which regional economic realities affect how we define income classifications.
While the national median household income sits at $87,556, this number can differ drastically from state to state. For instance, Mississippi has the lowest median income in the country at $54,915. On the other hand, states such as Maryland can proudly claim a median household income of $68,920.
Various income brackets for upper-middle class households reveal that some states require even higher earnings to achieve this status. For example, families in states such as Maryland need to earn at least $136,198 to start being classified as upper-middle class and $175,112 in Connecticut. In many ways, this underscores the need for recognizing that economic conditions are not uniform from place to place.
Additionally, individual states offer their own challenges in terms of what constitutes upper-middle class. In Arkansas, for instance, the low end is just $107,209 with the high end at $137,840. These numbers further highlight the need for context, particularly the regional disparity across the country, when looking at income levels in isolation.
Taken together, these findings present an intricate, yet optimistic, landscape of socioeconomic status in America. In the US, for example, the income threshold for considered upper middle class varies widely. These disparities underscore the unequal earning and larger economic realities that make a difference in households’ lives across the country.