The American middle class is shrinking. The number of Americans classified as middle class has fallen a staggering 10 percent since the 1970s, analysts say.
However, one city that is doing relatively well is Olympia, the capital of Washington state. With 55,605 residents, it ranks first on a list of the cities with the most middle class in the United States, according to a analysis by the Pew Research Center.
It’s no surprise that the Pacific Northwest city ranks first among 254 U.S. metropolitan areas, offering luxurious scenery with stunning views of Mount Rainer, the Olympic Mountain Range, and bordering stunning Capitol Lake.
Olympia, the capital of Washington state, home to 55,605 residents, takes first place on the list (pictured: Washington State Capitol)
The city offers luxurious landscapes with stunning views of Mount Rainer.
The Pew analysis defined a middle-class adult as someone living in a household with an annual income two-thirds twice the national median household income, which was about $75,000 at the time of the study.
Household size and the area’s cost of living were key factors in determining what was considered middle class.
A person living alone generally requires a lower income than a larger family would need to maintain the same lifestyle. Similarly, a household in a part of the country with a lower cost of living would need less income than one in an area with higher prices.
Using income data from the 2020 census, Pew assigned residents of each metro area to an income level: low, middle or high.
Olympia was the only metro in the Western U.S. to earn a spot in the coveted top 10, along with others in the upper Midwest and a few on the East Coast.
Olympia was the only metro in the Western US to earn a spot in the coveted top 10 (pictured: Olympia on a summer afternoon, looking from downtown toward the Capitol).
However, on the other side of the spectrum is San Jose, California, with almost half of the population in the highest income group at 41 percent, equaling the number of those residing in a middle-class home.
In the middle is Seattle, another city in Washington state, with 51 percent of adults in middle-class households. Twenty-one percent of Seattle-area adults were in the low-income tier and 28 percent were in the high-income tier.
Ranking as the highest population of low-income residents was Laredo, Texas, with 46 percent of residents in the bottom group. The highest proportion of low-income adults was found primarily in the southern United States.
The places with the highest proportion of middle-class adults were all, like Olympia, small to medium-sized metropolitan areas located in the northern half of the US.
San Jose, California (pictured) has about 41 percent of the population in the highest income group.
The marker for the largest population of low-income residents was Laredo, Texas (pictured), with a staggering 46 percent of residents classified in this group.
Olympia was one of three state capital regions that ranked within the top 10, the others being Dover, Delaware and Bismarck, North Dakota.
Other cities rounding out the top 10 include Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Janesville-Beloit, Wisconsin; Oshkosh-Neenah, Wisconsin; Lima, Ohio; Glens Falls, New York; Jackson, Missouri and St. Joseph, Missouri.
A report released earlier this year showed that 52 percent of Americans live in a middle-class household, with 30 percent in a low-income household and 19 percent in the high-income bracket.
The same report found that the top metropolitan areas for high-income residents were more populated areas, including Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and Washington, DC.
They also tended to be coastal metropolitan areas, with the exception of Austin.