Social Classes in USA Chart, Income Brackets by Class

Key figures from the chart

The chart divides the US population into five classes: poor/lower (about 20%), working (40%), middle (20%), upper (19%) and owning (1%).
It gives the upper class 48% of total wealth and the owning class 40%, so about a fifth of the population holds 88% (our sum).
Individual income brackets run from $0 to $32,000 for the poor/lower class to $461,000 and over for the owning class. The middle class bracket is $70,000 to $106,000.
All figures are from the graphic, which takes its wording from resourcegeneration.org and its income data from dqydj.com.

US class distinctions and income brackets, in text

The graphic is titled “United States Class Distinctions & Income Brackets”. It is a table with one column per class and rows for population, wealth, income, housing, occupation, education, debt and life experience. Wording is copied as printed, with spelling slips marked (sic).

Row	Poor/Lower class	Working class	Middle class	Upper class	Owning class
Population	~20% of US population	~40% of US population	~20% of US population	~19% of US population	~1% of US population
Wealth	1% of total wealth	3% of total wealth	8% of total wealth	48% of total wealth	40% of total wealth
Income (individual annual)	$0 to $32,000	$32,000 to $70,000	$70,000 to $106,000	$106,000 to $461,000	$461,000+
Housing	Substandard, unstable, or inconsistent rentals	May be unstable. Rents, or most of wealth tied to home	Home ownership or stable rental housing	Owns home or homes, travels	Owns luxurious home or homes, travels often
Occupation	Underemployed/underpaid, often uses public benefits	Labor, service or care work. Little control of pay/benefits	Wages/salary to pay bills. Some control of pay/benefits	Salary to pay bills. Mid/high level professionals	Investment income, full time work is optional
Education	Little access to higher education	Some access to higher education, with student loans	College usually expected, often with student loans	Often elite/selective college, often without student loans	Elite/selective private schools, without loans
Debt	Predatory lending, monthly basic expenses, emergencies	Education, medical bills, credit card spending	Mortgage, education, medical bills, credit cards	Mortgage, lifestyle debt	Inconsequential

Life experience row

Poor/Lower class. Chronic lack of necessities, basic living expenses difficult. Frequent involuntary moves, chaos, and distrubtion (sic) of life. Often raised with strong resource sharing values. Targetted (sic) via systems such as CPS, immigration, cash bail. Treated as disposable and scapegoated. Conditioned away from participating in the dominant society.
Working class. Generally lives paycheck to paycheck, with little to no savings. May use public or community safety nets. Often raised with strong resource sharing values. Targetted (sic) via fines/fees/cash bail. Treated as replaceable, conditioned to resent middle/upper class professionals and to idealize wealth. Often pitted against each other politcally (sic).
Middle class. Stable employment but can become precarious with unexpected expenses or layoffs. Some social status and support between generations. Class confusion, often with upper class incorrectly identifying as middle-class. Treated as the norm. Conditioned towards fear of being poor, aspires to be upper class.
Upper class. Some stock market investment and may be able to retire early. Higher amount of savings. Might receive/pass down significant inheritance. Social connections and financial knowledge passed down. May know legal or financial loopholes. Treated as experts. Conditioned to compare upwards, often misidentifies as middle class.
Owning class. Political and economic decision makers. Recieves (sic) or passes down large inheritances. Social connections and financial knowledge passed down. Hyper-individualism encouraged. Treated as leaders. Condtioned (sic) towards seeing poverty or wealth as directly related to one’s work and accomplishments.

The sources row reads: “All wording sourced from resourcegeneration.org. Income data sourced from dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator. Income is gross pretax income, assumes full time work. National averages given, exact values will vary with location.” No creator name or logo appears on the graphic.

How the source page defines the classes today

The chart’s wording comes from Resource Generation, an organisation of people aged 18 to 35 with wealth and class privilege that works for “the equitable distribution of wealth, land and power” [1]. Its class guide says class is “a system of power based on perceived social and economic status” and that class and money are closely connected but not the same thing [1].

The current version of that guide uses different figures from the chart, with household rather than individual income [1]:

Class (current RG page)	Share of population	Share of US net wealth	Household income
Poor	About 12%	About minus 1%	Under $33K
Working	About 35%	About 4%	$33K to $82K
Middle	About 32%	About 12%	$83K to $160K
Upper	About 20%	About 53%	$160K to $600K
Owning/Ruling	About 1%	About 32%	Over $600K

How Pew defines the middle class

The Pew Research Center uses a narrower, income-only measure. It counts adults as middle income if their household income, adjusted for household size, is between two-thirds and double the national median [2]. In 2022 that was about $56,600 to $169,800 a year for a household of three, and 52% of US adults lived in middle-income households, with 28% in lower-income and 19% in upper-income households [2]. Pew adjusts these ranges for local living costs and household size [2].

Notes on this infographic

Totals. The population shares (20, 40, 20, 19 and 1) and the wealth shares (1, 3, 8, 48 and 40) each add up to 100% (our sums).
Figures have changed. The source page now gives different population and wealth shares and uses household income brackets, as shown above [1]. We did not check the chart’s individual income cut-offs against the dqydj.com calculator.
Definitions vary. Wikipedia notes that there are many competing class systems and models, and that some definitions look only at numerical measures such as wealth or income [3]. Pew’s middle class covers 52% of adults [2], while this chart’s covers 20%, because the two use different measures.
Wording. The life experience descriptions are Resource Generation’s characterisations, reproduced as printed.

Questions about classes in the USA

What are the different economic classes?

This chart uses five: poor/lower, working, middle, upper and owning class. Pew uses three income tiers: lower, middle and upper income [2].

What is considered middle class?

On this chart, an individual income of $70,000 to $106,000. Pew’s measure is a household income between two-thirds and double the national median, about $56,600 to $169,800 for a household of three in 2022 [2].

How much wealth does the top 1% own in the US?

The chart gives the owning class, about 1% of the US population, 40% of total wealth. The current version of the Resource Generation guide it draws on puts the owning/ruling class at about 32% of US net wealth, with household incomes over $600K [1]. On the chart, the owning class has individual incomes of $461,000 and over, and full time work is optional because of investment income.

How much income do you need to be upper class in the US?

On this chart, the upper class has an individual annual income of $106,000 to $461,000. This group makes up about 19% of the US population and holds 48% of total wealth. The current Resource Generation guide uses household income instead and puts the upper class at $160K to $600K [1]. The chart's figures are gross pretax income for full time work, given as national averages that vary with location.