What Qualifies as Middle-Income in Each State

Middle class income is a range that depends on how much people make where you live. So if income leans higher in one state than in another, the middle-income range reflects that. It also depends on how many people are in the household.

Here is how middle-income varies across the states and the country overall.

Household Middle Income

Bars represent a range for each state, sorted by median and adjusted for household size.

This is based on data from the five-year American Community Survey from 2023. The more recent 2024 data was supposed to be out by now, so I’ll update when the federal government gets their act together.

I’m using the Pew Research definition of middle income, which is two-thirds the median to twice the median.

Washington, D.C. is at the top, as you might expect for a city, but the median income for a household with five people was lower than for a household of four. Anomaly? Demographic difference between four- and five-person households? I’m not sure about this.

But holy cannoli, Massachusetts. A $300,000 income puts you in middle class for a household of four. Here I thought California was inflated, but I guess it’s a bigger state, which gives more space for variation in smaller cities and rural areas. Massachusetts seems more concentrated in Boston. It’s probably a similar story with New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.