View source for Middle class

{{Short description|Class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy}}
{{about||the band|Middle Class (band)|the 2001 TV documentary|Middle Classes: Their Rise and Sprawl}}
{{Not to be confused with|Working class}}
[[File:Global Wealth Distribution 2020 (Property).svg|thumb|Global shareholders of [[wealth]] by wealth group, a 2021 graph by [[Credit Suisse]]]]
The '''middle class''' refers to a [[Social class|class]] of people in the middle of a [[social hierarchy]], often defined by [[job|occupation]], income, education, or [[social status]]. The term has historically been associated with modernity,<ref>{{Cite book |last=López & Weinstein |first=A. Ricardo & Barbara |title=The making of the middle class: toward a transnational history |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2012 |isbn=9780822394815 |location=North Carolina, US. |pages=3–4 |language=English}}</ref> [[capitalism]] and political debate.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Tarkhnishvili |first=Anna & Levan |date=2013 |title=Middle Class: Definition, Role and Development |url=https://globaljournals.org/GJHSS_Volume13/3-Middle-Class-Definition-Role-and-Development.pdf |journal=Global Journal of Human Social Science, Sociology & Culture |volume=13 |pages=2 |via=Global Journals |access-date=2022-03-19 |archive-date=2022-01-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123195854/https://globaljournals.org/GJHSS_Volume13/3-Middle-Class-Definition-Role-and-Development.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Common definitions for the middle class range from the middle fifth of individuals on a nation's income ladder, to everyone but the poorest and wealthiest 20%.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is middle class, anyway? |url=https://money.cnn.com/infographic/economy/what-is-middle-class-anyway/index.html |access-date=2020-08-03 |archive-date=2020-07-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200706165032/https://money.cnn.com/infographic/economy/what-is-middle-class-anyway/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Theories like "Paradox of Interest" use [[decile]] groups and [[wealth distribution]] data to determine the size and wealth share of the middle class.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Baizidi |first=Rahim |date=17 July 2019 |title=Paradoxical class: paradox of interest and political conservatism in middle class |journal=Asian Journal of Political Science |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=272–285 |doi=10.1080/02185377.2019.1642772 |issn=0218-5377 |s2cid=199308683}}</ref>

[[Social class in the United States|Terminology differs in the United States]], where the term ''middle class'' describes people who in other countries would be described as [[working class]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sussman |first=Gerald |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/British_and_American_Electoral_Politics/2jMWEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=US+%22middle+class%22+UK+%22working+class%22&pg=PA125&printsec=frontcover |title=British and American Electoral Politics in the Age of Neoliberalism: Parallel Trajectories |date=2024-09-05 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-040-13075-9 |language=en}}</ref> There has been significant global middle-class growth over time. In February 2009, ''[[The Economist]]'' asserted that over half of the world's population belonged to the middle class, as a result of rapid growth in emerging countries. It characterized the middle class as having a reasonable amount of [[Disposable and discretionary income|discretionary income]] and defined it as beginning at the point where people have roughly a third of their income left for discretionary spending after paying for basic food and shelter.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Parker |first1=John |title=Special report: Burgeoning bourgeoisie |url=https://www.economist.com/special-report/2009/02/14/burgeoning-bourgeoisie |newspaper=The Economist |access-date=4 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090215182252/http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13063298&source=hptextfeature |archive-date=15 February 2009 |date=12 February 2009}}</ref>

==History and evolution of the term==
[[File:Sculpture of a Retired Townsman as a Lay Buddhist, 17th-18th century.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Sculpture of a ''[[chōnin]]'', a middle class of mainly merchants that emerged in Japan during the [[Edo period]]. Early 18th century.]]

The term "middle class" is first attested in James Bradshaw's 1745 pamphlet ''Scheme to prevent running Irish Wools to France.''<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url= http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/118147?redirectedFrom=middle%20class|title= Home : Oxford English Dictionary|work= oed.com|access-date= 2012-05-19|archive-date= 2015-09-24|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150924070941/http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/118147?redirectedFrom=middle%20class|url-status= live}}</ref><ref name="Bradshaw1745">{{cite book|author= James Bradshaw|title= scheme to prevent the running of Irish wools to France: and Irish woollen goods to foreign countries. By prohibiting the importation of Spanish wools into Ireland ... Humbly offered to the consideration of Parliament. By a Merchant of London|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=AJdbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA4|access-date= 18 May 2012|year= 1745|publisher= printed for J. Smith, and G. Faulkner|pages= 4–5}}</ref> Another phrase used in [[early modern Europe]] was "the middling sort".<ref>{{cite book|last1= Hunt|first1= Margaret R.|title= The Middling Sort : Commerce, Gender, and the Family in England, 1680–1780|date= 1996|publisher= University California Press |isbn=0-520-20260-0 |quote=To be one of "the middling sort" in urban England in the late seventeenth or eighteenth century was to live a life tied, one way or another, to the world of commerce. }}</ref><ref>E.N. Williams, "Our Merchants Are Princes": The English Middle Classes In The Eighteenth Century" ''History Today'' (Aug 1962) Vol. 12 Issue 8, pp. 548–557.
</ref>

The term "middle class" has had several and sometimes contradictory meanings.<ref>{{Citation |last=Metzgar |first=Jack |title=The Rise of Professional Middle-Class Labor |date=2021-11-15 |work=Bridging the Divide |pages=42–51 |url=https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501760310.003.0003 |access-date=2025-03-29 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-6031-0}}</ref> [[Friedrich Engels]] saw the category as an intermediate [[social class]] between the [[nobility]] and the [[peasantry]] in late-feudalist society.<ref>{{cite book |last= Engels |first= Friedrich |date= 1892 |title= 1892 Introduction to "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific" |url= https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/int-hist.htm |location= Marxists Internet Archive |publisher= Marxists Internet Archive |access-date= 2018-06-09 |archive-date= 2022-04-09 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220409141652/https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/int-hist.htm |url-status= live }}</ref>{{qn|date=August 2018}} While the nobility owned much of the countryside, and the peasantry worked it, a new ''[[bourgeoisie]]'' (literally "town-dwellers") arose around mercantile functions in the city. In [[France]], the middle classes helped drive the [[French Revolution]].<ref>[[Georges Lefebvre]], La Révolution Française, 1951 1957</ref> This "middle class" eventually overthrew the ruling monarchists of feudal society, thus becoming the new ruling class or bourgeoisie in the new capitalist-dominated societies.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Marx |first1=Karl |last2=Engels |first2=Friedrich |date=1848 |title=Manifesto of the Communist Party |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm |location=Marxists Internet Archive |publisher=Marxists Internet Archive |access-date=2018-06-09 |archive-date=2009-09-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090902090238/http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The modern usage of the term "middle-class", however, dates to the 1913 UK Registrar-General's report, in which the statistician [[T. H. C. Stevenson]] identified the middle class as those falling between the [[upper-class]] and the [[working-class]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Social Research Update 9: Official Social Classifications in the UK|url=https://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU9.html|access-date=29 November 2020|website=sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk|archive-date=18 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210318031148/https://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU9.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The middle class includes: professionals, managers, and senior civil servants. The chief defining characteristic of membership in the middle-class is control of significant [[human capital]] while still being under the dominion of the elite upper class, who control much of the financial and legal capital in the world.

Within capitalism, "middle-class" initially referred to the ''bourgeoisie''; later, with the further differentiation of classes as capitalist societies developed, the term came to be synonymous with the term ''[[petite bourgeoisie]]''. The boom-and-bust cycles of capitalist economies result in the periodic (and more or less temporary) [[Poverty|impoverishment]] and [[proletarianisation|proletarianization]] of much of the ''petite bourgeois'' world, resulting in their moving back and forth between working-class and petite-bourgeois status. The typical modern definitions of "middle class" tend to ignore the fact that the classical petite-bourgeoisie is and has always been the owner of a small-to medium-sized business whose income is derived almost exclusively from the employment of workers; "middle class" came to refer to the combination of the [[labour aristocracy]], [[professionals]], and salaried, [[white-collar worker]]s. A broad middle class can act as a counterweight against oligarchy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fishkin |first=Joseph |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Anti_Oligarchy_Constitution/QRJOEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=anti-oligarchy+constitution+broad+and+open+middle+class+as+a+counterweight&pg=PA30&printsec=frontcover |title=The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution: Reconstructing the Economic Foundations of American Democracy |last2=Forbath |first2=William E. |date=2022-01-11 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-98062-4 |language=en}}</ref>

The size of the middle class depends on how it is defined, whether by education, [[wealth]], environment of upbringing, [[social network]], [[etiquette|manners]] or values, etc. These are all related, but are far from deterministically dependent. The following factors are often ascribed in the literature on this topic to a "middle class:"{{By whom|date=October 2009}}

* Achievement of [[tertiary education]].
* Holding professional qualifications, including [[Academic staff|academics]], [[lawyers]], [[chartered engineer]]s, [[politicians]], and [[physicians|doctors]], regardless of leisure or wealth.
* Belief in ''[[bourgeois]]'' values, such as high rates of [[Owner-occupier|house ownership]], [[delayed gratification]], and jobs that are perceived to be [[job security|secure]].
* Lifestyle. In the United Kingdom, social status has historically been linked less directly to wealth than in the United States,<ref>Williams, "Our Merchants Are Princes": The English Middle Classes In The Eighteenth Century" ''History Today'' (Aug 1962), Vol. 12 Issue 8, pp. 548–557.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/now/politics/middleclassoverview.html |title=Who is the Middle Class? |date=25 June 2004 |publisher=PBS |access-date=19 April 2011 |archive-date=2 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210202131443/https://www.pbs.org/now/politics/middleclassoverview.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and has also been judged by such characteristics as [[Accent (dialect)|accent]] ([[Received Pronunciation]] and [[U and non-U English]]), manners, type of school attended (state or private school), occupation, and the class of a person's family, circle of friends and acquaintances.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ipsos.co.uk/researchpublications/researcharchive/160/Survey-on-Class.aspx |title=Survey on Class |date=19 March 2008 |publisher=Ipsos MORI |access-date=18 April 2011 |archive-date=18 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110818155405/http://ipsos.co.uk/researchpublications/researcharchive/160/Survey-on-Class.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://ipsos.co.uk/researchpublications/researcharchive/poll.aspx?oItemId=2404&view=wide |title=Perceptions of Social Class (trends) |date=19 March 2008 |publisher=Ipsos MORI |access-date=18 April 2011 |archive-date=18 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110818160452/http://ipsos.co.uk/researchpublications/researcharchive/poll.aspx?oItemId=2404&view=wide |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the United States, by the end of the twentieth century, more people identified themselves as middle-class (with insignificant numbers identifying themselves as upper-class).<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/12/22/what-does-middle-class-mean-today/who-should-be-the-judge-of-middle-class |work= The New York Times |title= Room for Debate: Who Should Be the Judge of Middle Class? |date= 23 December 2010 |access-date= 4 March 2017 |archive-date= 18 January 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170118143017/http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/12/22/what-does-middle-class-mean-today/who-should-be-the-judge-of-middle-class |url-status= live }}</ref> The [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] in the UK, which grew out of the organised [[labour movement]] and originally drew almost all of its support from the working-class, reinvented itself under [[Tony Blair]] in the 1990s as [[New Labour#New Labour|"New Labour"]], a party competing with the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] for the votes of the middle-class as well as those of the Labour Party's traditional group of voters – the working-class. Around 40% of British people consider themselves to be middle class, and this number has remained relatively stable over the last few decades.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Most People Today Regard Themselves as Working Class|last=Butler|first=Patrick|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jun/29/most-brits-regard-themselves-as-working-class-survey-finds|date=29 June 2016|access-date=5 October 2020|archive-date=1 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101120742/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jun/29/most-brits-regard-themselves-as-working-class-survey-finds|url-status=live}} <br>Alternative link for same study: [https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-06-30-most-people-britain-today-regard-themselves-working-class Oxford University News: Most People in Britain Today Regard Themselves as Working Class] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022012018/https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-06-30-most-people-britain-today-regard-themselves-working-class |date=2020-10-22 }}</ref>

According to the [[OECD]], the middle class refers to households with income between 75% and 200% of the median national income.<ref>{{citation | url = https://www.oecd.org/social/under-pressure-the-squeezed-middle-class-689afed1-en.htm | title = Under Pressure: The Squeezed Middle Class | date = 2019-05-01 | access-date = 2023-12-05 }}</ref>

==Marxism==
{{main|Marxism|Marxian class theory}}

[[Marxism]] defines social classes according to their relationship with the [[means of production]]. The main basis of social class division of Marxism: the possession of means of production, the role and position it plays in social labor organization (production process), the distribution of wealth and resources and the amount. Marxist writers have used the term middle class in various ways.<ref name="clb">Communist League Britain, Marxism and Class: Some definitions. undated. http://www.mltranslations.org/Britain/Marxclass.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091101082339/http://www.mltranslations.org/Britain/Marxclass.htm |date=2009-11-01 }} at §The 'Middle Class'</ref> In the first sense, it is used for the bourgeoisie (the urban merchant and professional class) that arose between the [[aristocracy]] and the proletariat in the waning years of feudalism in the Marxist model. [[Vladimir Lenin]] stated that the "peasantry&nbsp;... in Russia constitute eight- or nine-tenths of the petty bourgeoisie".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1907/feb/25.htm |title=The Bolsheviks and the Petty Bourgeoisie |last=Lenin |first=V. I. |date=25 February 1907 |website=Marxists Internet Archive |publisher=Novy Luch |access-date=8 June 2018 |quote=In particular, the, peasantry, who in Russia constitute eight- or nine-tenths of the petty bourgeoisie, are struggling primarily for land. |archive-date=12 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612141555/https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1907/feb/25.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/oct/09.htm |title=The Tasks of the Revolution |last=Lenin |first=V.I. |date=9–10 October 1917 |website=Marxists Internet Archive |publisher=Rabochy Put |access-date=8 June 2018 |quote=Russia is a country of the petty bourgeoisie, by far the greater part of the population belonging to this class. |archive-date=15 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715175529/https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/oct/09.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> However, in modern developed countries, Marxist writers define the ''petite bourgeoisie'' as primarily comprising (as the name implies) owners of small to medium-sized businesses, who derive their income from the exploitation of wage-laborers (and who are in turn exploited by the "big" bourgeoisie i.e. bankers, owners of large corporate trusts, etc.) as well as the highly educated professional class of doctors, engineers, architects, lawyers, university professors, salaried middle-management of capitalist enterprises of all sizes, etc. – as the "middle class" which stands between the ruling capitalist "owners of the means of production" and the working class (whose income is derived solely from hourly wages).{{Citation needed|reason=Which writers?|date=December 2025}}

[[Louis C. Fraina]] (Lewis Corey), a pioneer 20th-century American [[Marxist theoretician]], defined the middle class as "the class of independent small enterprisers, owners of productive property from which a livelihood is derived".<ref name=Fraina141>Lewis Corey, "American Class Relations", ''Marxist Quarterly,'' vol. 1 no. 2 (January–March 1937), p. 141.</ref> From Fraina's perspective, this social category included "propertied farmers" but not propertyless [[tenant farmer]]s. Middle class also included salaried managerial and supervisory employees but not "the masses of propertyless, dependent salaried employees.<ref name=Fraina141 /> Fraina speculated that the entire category of salaried employees might be adequately described as a "new middle class" in economic terms, although this remained a social grouping in which "most of whose members are a new proletariat."<ref name=Fraina141/>

==Professional–managerial class==
{{main|Professional–managerial class}}

In 1977, [[Barbara Ehrenreich]] and [[John Ehrenreich]] defined a new class in the United States as "salaried mental workers who do not own the means of production and whose major function in the social division of labor&nbsp;... [is]&nbsp;... the reproduction of capitalist culture and capitalist class relations;" the Ehrenreichs named this group the "professional–managerial class".<ref name=Ehrenreich>Stewart Clegg, Paul Boreham, Geoff Dow; {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/classpoliticseco0000cleg|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/classpoliticseco0000cleg/page/158 158]|quote=Professional/Managerial Class.|title=Class, politics, and the economy|publisher=Routledge|access-date=4 October 2009|isbn=978-0-7102-0452-3|year=1986}}</ref> This group of middle-class [[professional]]s is distinguished from other social classes by their training and education (typically business qualifications and university degrees),<ref>Philip Green, {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DZJI9IXbLZwC&q=Professional%2FManagerial%20Class&pg=PA14|title=Retrieving democracy: in search of civic equality Rowman & Littlefield|year=1985|isbn=978-0-8476-7405-3|access-date=4 October 2009|last1=Green|first1=Philip|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield }}</ref> with example occupations including academics and [[teachers]], [[social workers]], [[engineer]]s, [[accountants]], [[managers]], [[Nursing|nurses]], and middle-level administrators.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=urStiXomlVsC&q=Professional%2FManagerial%20Class&pg=PA41 |title=Hidden Technocrats: The New Class and New Capitalism |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=1991 |isbn=978-1-56000-787-6 |access-date=4 October 2009}} </ref> The Ehrenreichs developed their definition from studies by [[André Gorz]], Serge Mallet, and others, of a "new working class," which, despite education and a perception of themselves as middle class, were part of the working class because they did not own the means of production, and were wage earners paid to produce a piece of capital.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-LPgx62t86gC&q=Professional%2FManagerial%20Class&pg=PA5 |title=Between labor and capital – Google Books |access-date=4 October 2009 |isbn=978-0-89608-037-9|year=1979|last1=Walker |first1=Pat |publisher=South End Press }}</ref> The professional–managerial class seek higher rank status and salaries<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TOtOkos1LP8C&q=Professional%20Managerial%20Class&pg=PA469 |title=The general theory of ... – Google Books |access-date= 4 October 2009|isbn=978-0-521-59006-8|year=1998}}</ref> and tend to have incomes above the average for their country.<ref>Gail Paradise Kelly, Sheila Slaughter; {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V-CKcuRAu8EC&q=Professional%20Managerial%20Class%20salary&pg=PA254 |title=Women's higher education in comparative perspective |publisher=Springer |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-7923-0800-3 |access-date=4 October 2009}}</ref>

==Recent global growth==
Modern definitions of the term "middle class" are often politically motivated and vary according to the exigencies of political purpose which they were conceived to serve in the first place as well as due to the multiplicity of more- or less-scientific methods used to measure and compare wealth between modern advanced industrial states, where poverty is relatively low and the distribution of wealth more egalitarian in a relative sense, and in [[developing countries]], where poverty and a profoundly unequal distribution of wealth crush the vast majority of the population. Many of these methods of comparison have been harshly criticised; for example, economist [[Thomas Piketty]], in his book ''[[Capital in the Twenty-First Century]]'', describes one of the most commonly used comparative measures of wealth across the globe, the [[Gini coefficient]], as being an example of "synthetic indices&nbsp;... which mix very different things, such as inequality with respect to labor and capital, so that it is impossible to distinguish clearly among the multiple dimensions of inequality and the various mechanisms at work."<ref>{{cite book |last=Piketty |first=Thomas |date=2014 |title=Capital in the Twenty-First Century |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780674430006/page/243 |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780674430006/page/243 243] |isbn=978-0-674-43000-6 |url-access=registration }}</ref>

In February 2009, ''[[The Economist]]'' asserted that over half the world's population now belongs to the middle class, as a result of rapid growth in emerging countries. It characterized the middle class as having a reasonable amount of [[Disposable and discretionary income|discretionary income]], so that they do not live from hand-to-mouth as the poor do, and defined it as beginning at the point where people have roughly a third of their income left for discretionary spending after paying for basic food and shelter. This allows people to buy consumer goods, improve their health care, and provide for their children's education. Most of the emerging middle class consists of people who are middle class by the standards of the developing world but not the developed one, since their money incomes do not match developed country levels, but the percentage of it which is discretionary does. By this definition, the number of middle-class people in Asia exceeded that in the West sometime around 2007 or 2008.<ref>{{Cite news
|last=Parker
|first=John
|publication-date=13 February 2009
|date=12 February 2009
|title=Special report: Burgeoning bourgeoisie
|newspaper=The Economist
|url=https://www.economist.com/specialreports/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13063298&source=hptextfeature
|access-date=13 December 2009
|archive-date=15 February 2009
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090215182252/http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13063298&source=hptextfeature
|url-status=live
}}</ref>

''The Economist''{{'s}} article pointed out that in many emerging countries, the middle class has not grown incrementally but explosively. The point at which the poor start entering the middle class by the millions is alleged to be the time when poor countries get the maximum benefit from cheap labour through [[international trade]], before they price themselves out of world markets for cheap goods. It is also a period of rapid [[urbanization]], when [[subsistence farmers]] abandon marginal farms to work in factories, resulting in a several-fold increase in their economic [[productivity]] before their wages catch up to international levels. That stage was reached in China sometime between 1990 and 2005, when the Chinese "middle class" grew from 15% to 62% of the population and is just being reached in India now.

''The Economist'' predicted that surge across the [[poverty line]] should continue for a couple of decades and the global middle class will grow exponentially between now and 2030. Based on the rapid growth, scholars expect the global middle class to be the driving force for [[sustainable development]]. This assumption, however, is contested (see below).<ref name="The middle-class hype">{{cite web|url=http://www.dandc.eu/en/article/it-doubtful-whether-middle-classes-developing-countries-are-driving-progress|title=It is doubtful, whether "middle classes" in developing countries are driving progress|work=D+C|date=6 February 2015 |access-date=2015-02-28|archive-date=2015-03-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150306190011/http://www.dandc.eu/en/article/it-doubtful-whether-middle-classes-developing-countries-are-driving-progress|url-status=live}}</ref>

As the [[American middle class]] is estimated by some researchers to comprise approximately 45% of the population,<ref>Gilbert, D. (2002) The American Class Structure: In An Age of Growing Inequality. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth; Thompson, W. & Hickey, J. (2005).</ref><ref>Society in Focus. Boston, MA: Pearson, Allyn & Bacon; Beeghley, L. (2004).</ref><ref>The Structure of Social Stratification in the United States. Boston, MA: Pearson, Allyn & Bacon.</ref> ''The Economist''{{'s}} article would put the size of the American middle class below the world average. This difference is due to the extreme difference in definitions between ''The Economist''{{'s}} and many [[American middle class#Academic models|other models]].{{discuss|45%_exactly}}

In 2010, a working paper by the [[OECD]] asserted that 1.8 billion people were now members of the global "middle class".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/12/52/44457738.pdf|title=The Emerging Middle Class in Developing Countries|first = Homi|last = Kharas|date = January 2010|work=oecd.org|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170310040152/http://www.oecd.org/social/poverty/44457738.pdf|archive-date = 10 March 2017}}</ref> Credit Suisse's Global Wealth Report 2014, released in October 2014, estimated that one billion adults belonged to the "middle class," with wealth anywhere between the range of $10,000–$100,000.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/Chinas-middle-class-10-times-larger-than-that-in-India/articleshow/44816063.cms|title=China's "middle class" 10 times larger than that in India|work=The Times of India|date=14 October 2014 |access-date=2015-04-04|archive-date=2015-03-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150308211636/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/Chinas-middle-class-10-times-larger-than-that-in-India/articleshow/44816063.cms|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to a study carried out by the [[Pew Research Center]], a combined 16% of the world's population in 2011 were "upper-middle income" and "upper income".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pewglobal.org/interactives/global-population-by-income/|title=World Population by Income|date=8 July 2015|work=Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project|access-date=6 September 2015|archive-date=5 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905225432/http://www.pewglobal.org/interactives/global-population-by-income/|url-status=live}}</ref>

An April 2019 OECD report said that the [[millennial generation]] is being pushed out of the middle class throughout the Western world.<ref>{{cite news|last=Partington|first=Richard|date=10 April 2019|title=Millennials being squeezed out of middle class, says OECD|url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/10/millennials-squeezed-middle-class-oecd-uk-income|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=2 May 2019|archive-date=1 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190501220343/https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/10/millennials-squeezed-middle-class-oecd-uk-income|url-status=live}}</ref>

===China===
Since the beginning of the 21st century, [[China]]'s middle class has grown by significant margins. According to the [[Center for Strategic and International Studies]], by 2013, some 420 million people, or 31%, of the Chinese population qualified as middle class.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Crabb|first=Mary W.|date=2010|title=Governing the middle-class family in urban China: educational reform and questions of choice|journal=Economy and Society|language=en|volume=39|issue=3|pages=385–402|doi=10.1080/03085147.2010.486216|s2cid=144365982|issn=0308-5147}}</ref> Based on the World Bank definition of middle class as those having with daily spending between $10 and $50 per day, nearly 40% of the Chinese population were considered middle class as of 2017.<ref name="chinamiddle">{{cite news |title=How well-off is China's middle class? |url=https://chinapower.csis.org/china-middle-class/ |work=chinapower.csis.org |access-date=2019-08-10 |archive-date=2021-10-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211030101433/https://chinapower.csis.org/china-middle-class/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

China's middle class represents a significant market force with effects extending beyond its borders. The promise of increased prosperity and a consumer society has been a driving force behind this growth, while also suggesting the potential for political changes similar to those seen in Europe and North America. However, it's important to note that the Chinese middle class differs substantially from its Western counterparts. Despite its growth, it remains a relatively small group profoundly joined with the Chinese state. This unique relationship challenges assumptions about its role in political change. Criticisms from this demographic often center on improving efficiency and social justice within the existing political framework, rather than advocating for a regime change.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Goodman |first1=David |title=Why China's middle class supports the Communist Party |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Global-Viewpoint/2013/1022/Why-China-s-middle-class-supports-the-Communist-Party |journal=The Christian Science Monitor |publisher=Tribune Content Agency |access-date=September 11, 2023}}</ref>

===Germany===
In 2017, [[Andreas Reckwitz]] described two middle classes in Germany: the new middle class and the old middle class. The new middle class consists primarily of "highly qualified academics in large cities with good career prospects, especially in the knowledge economy". Although this new middle class has a high ecological footprint, for example due to frequent air travel, it nevertheless considers ecologically responsible behavior to be important. The old middle class are "people with a medium level of education, often in small-town rural regions, who tend to be [[Conservatism|conservative]] and [[Tradition|traditional]] in their [[Attitude (psychology)|attitudes]] and [[Lifestyle|lifestyles]]."<ref>{{Cite web | title=In Conversation With Andreas Reckwitz {{!}} Sleek Magazine | url=https://www.sleek-mag.com/article/in-conversation-with-andreas-reckwitz/ | access-date=2025-08-12 | website=www.sleek-mag.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | title=Archived copy | url=https://www.analyse-und-kritik.net/Dateien/63887ca26e4f4_the_society_of_singularities.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230808105638/https://www.analyse-und-kritik.net/Dateien/63887ca26e4f4_the_society_of_singularities.pdf | archive-date=2023-08-08}}</ref>

===India===
Estimates vary widely on the number of middle-class people in [[India]]. A 1983 article put the Indian middle class as somewhere between 70 and 100 million.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/08/14/weekinreview/india-s-growing-middle-income-group-emerges-as-a-class.html |title=India's Growing Middle-Income Group Emerges As a Class |first=William K. |last=Stevens |work=The New York Times |date=August 14, 1983 |page=E3 |access-date=September 12, 2023}}</ref> According to one study the middle class in India stood at between 60 and 80 million by 1990.<ref>Consumerism in World History The Global Transformation of Desire By Peter N. Stearns, Professor of History and Provost Peter N Stearns, 2001, p. 129.</ref> According to ''The Economist'', 78 million of India's population are considered middle class as of 2017, if defined using the cutoff of those making more than $10 per day, a standard used by the India's National Council of Applied Economic Research.<ref name="teindia">{{cite news |title=India's missing middle class |url=https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/01/11/indias-missing-middle-class |newspaper=The Economist |date=11 January 2018 |access-date=10 August 2019 |archive-date=10 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190810213840/https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/01/11/indias-missing-middle-class |url-status=live }}</ref> If including those with incomes between $2 and $10 per day, the number increases to 604 million. This was termed by researchers as the "new middle class".<ref name="epw">{{cite news |last1=Krishnan |first1=Sandhya |last2=Hatekar |first2=Neeraj |title=Rise of the New Middle Class in India and Its Changing Structure |url=https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/22/special-articles/rise-new-middle-class-india-and-its-changing-structure.html |work=Economic and Political Weekly |date=3 June 2017 |access-date=10 August 2019 |archive-date=10 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190810213849/https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/22/special-articles/rise-new-middle-class-india-and-its-changing-structure.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Measures considered include geography, lifestyle, income, and education. The World Inequality Report in 2018 further concluded that elites (i.e. the top 10%) are accumulating wealth at a greater rate than the middle class, that rather than growing, India's middle class may be shrinking in size.<ref name="teindia"/>

===Africa===
According to a 2014 study by Standard Bank economist Simon Freemantle, a total of 15.3 million households in 11 surveyed nations of [[Africa]] are middle class: [[Angola]], [[Ethiopia]], [[Ghana]], [[Kenya]], [[Mozambique]], [[Nigeria]], [[South Sudan]], [[Sudan]], [[Tanzania]], [[Uganda]], and [[Zambia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/making-sense-of-africas-middle-class/43318/|title=Making sense of Africa's middle class|work=howwemadeitinafrica.com|date=12 September 2014|access-date=20 August 2015|archive-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924031651/http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/making-sense-of-africas-middle-class/43318/|url-status=live}}</ref> In [[South Africa]], a report conducted by the Institute for Race Relations in 2015<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.htxt.co.za/2015/08/03/how-south-africas-middle-class-makes-use-of-technology/|title=How South Africa's middle class makes use of technology – htxt.africa|work=htxt.africa|date=3 August 2015|access-date=20 August 2015|archive-date=15 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150815140740/http://www.htxt.co.za/2015/08/03/how-south-africas-middle-class-makes-use-of-technology/|url-status=live}}</ref> estimated that between 10% and 20% of South Africans are middle class, based on various criteria.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://irr.org.za/reports-and-publications/media-releases/black-middle-class-has-expanded-quickly-but-may-now-slow-2013-new-irr-report/view|title=Black middle class has expanded quickly but may now slow – new IRR report|work=irr.org.za|access-date=2015-08-20|archive-date=2015-09-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927200054/http://irr.org.za/reports-and-publications/media-releases/black-middle-class-has-expanded-quickly-but-may-now-slow-2013-new-irr-report/view|url-status=live}}</ref> An earlier study estimated that in 2008 21.3% of [[South Africa|South Africans]] were members of the middle class.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://businesstech.co.za/news/general/43187/sa-middle-class-getting-poorer/|title=SA middle class getting poorer|website=BusinessTech|date=29 July 2013|access-date=15 October 2015|archive-date=29 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161029043057/http://businesstech.co.za/news/general/43187/sa-middle-class-getting-poorer/|url-status=live}}</ref>

A study by EIU Canback indicates 90% of Africans fall below an income of $10 a day. The proportion of Africans in the $10–$20 middle class (excluding South Africa), rose from 4.4% to only 6.2% between 2004 and 2014. Over the same period, the proportion of "[[upper middle class]]" income ($20–$50 a day) went from 1.4% to 2.3%.<ref>{{Cite news|title = Few and far between|url = https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21676774-africans-are-mainly-rich-or-poor-not-middle-class-should-worry|newspaper = The Economist|access-date = 31 October 2015|issn = 0013-0613|archive-date = 31 October 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151031133718/http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21676774-africans-are-mainly-rich-or-poor-not-middle-class-should-worry|url-status = live}}</ref>

According to a 2014 study by the German Development Institute, the middle class of [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] rose from 14 million to 31 million people between 1990 and 2010.<ref name="die-gdi.de">{{cite book|url = https://www.die-gdi.de/uploads/media/DP_35.2014.pdf|publisher = German Development Institute|title = A Cartography of the New Middle Classes in Developing and Emerging Countries|format = Discussion Paper|id = 35/2014|first1 = Clara|last1 = Brandi|first2 = Max|last2 = Büge|location = Bonn|date = 2014|issn = 1860-0441|isbn = 978-3-88985-661-6|access-date = 2015-08-25|archive-date = 2015-02-26|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150226033051/http://www.die-gdi.de/uploads/media/DP_35.2014.pdf|url-status = live}}</ref>

===Latin America===
Over the years estimates on the size of the [[Latin America]]'s middle class have varied. A 1960 study stated that the middle strata in Latin America as a whole, exclusive of Indians, constituted just under 20% of the national society.<ref>Social Change in Latin America Today: Its Implications for United States Policy By Richard N. Adams, John P. Gillin, Allan R. Holmberg, Oscar Lewis, Richard W. Patch, and Charles Wagley, with an Introduction by Lyman Bryson. (New York: Published for the Council on Foreign Relations by Harper & Brothers, 1960, p. 25.</ref> A 1964 study estimated that 45 million Latin Americans belonged to the urban middle class while 15 million belonged to the urban well-to-do and 8 million to the rural middle class and well-to-do.<ref>The Farm Index, August 1964, p. 19.</ref> In [[Brazil]], according to one estimate, in 1970 the [[lower middle class]] comprised 12% of the population, while the upper middle class comprised 3%.<ref>O livro no Brasil sua história By Laurence Hallewell, 2005, p. 715.</ref> In the mid-1970s it was estimated by one authority that the Brazilian middle class comprised between 15 and 25% of the population.<ref>Area Handbook for Brazil By Thomas E. Weil, American University (Washington, D.C.). Foreign Area Studies, 1975, p. 186.</ref> A 1969 economic survey estimated that 15% of Brazilians belonged to the middle class.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=_zEDEAAAQBAJ&dq=economic+survey+Brazil+1969+middle+class+employed&pg=PA388 Economic Survey of Latin America 1969 By United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (author), 1969, P.388]</ref> By 1970, according to one study, the middle class of [[Argentina]] comprised 38% of the economically active population, compared with 19% in Brazil and 24% in [[Mexico]].<ref>Manufacturing Miracles Paths of Industrialization in Latin America and East Asia 2014, p. 196.</ref> A 1975 study on Mexico estimated that the middle class in 1968 (defined as families earning between 2,000 and 5,000 pesos annually) comprised 36.4% of the population, while the upper class (defined as families earning over 5,000 pesos annually) comprised 9.4% of the population and the lower class (defined as families earning less than 2,000 pesos annually) comprised 53.9% of the population.<ref>Area Handbook for Mexico By Thomas E. Weil, 1975, P.116-117</ref>

According to a study by the [[World Bank]], the number of Latin Americans who are middle class rose from 103 million to 152 million between 2003 and 2009.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/06/latin-america-s-middle-class|title=Latin America's middle class|newspaper=The Economist|date=27 June 2014|access-date=13 July 2017|archive-date=1 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701154337/http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/06/latin-america-s-middle-class|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Russia===
Due to [[sustainable growth]], the pre-crisis<ref>Meas 2008 crisis.{{full citation needed|date=December 2019}}</ref> level was exceeded.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rgs.ru/media/CSR/Middle%20class%202012.pdf|publisher=Rosgosstrakh Strategic Research Centre|title=Middle class in Russia is 15% of the whole population|access-date=2013-08-19|archive-date=2015-04-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150415064333/http://www.rgs.ru/media/CSR/Middle%20class%202012.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2015, research from the Russian Academy of Sciences estimated that around 15% of the Russian population are "firmly middle class", while around another 25% are "on the periphery".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://uk.news.yahoo.com/russian-middle-class-slowly-stirred-action-economic-crisis-113259261--finance.html#onDeBDC|title=Russian middle class slowly stirred to action by economic crisis|date=10 April 2015|work=Yahoo News UK|access-date=11 April 2015|archive-date=17 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150417203737/https://uk.news.yahoo.com/russian-middle-class-slowly-stirred-action-economic-crisis-113259261--finance.html#onDeBDC|url-status=live}}</ref>

== See also ==

{{Portal|Society|Politics|Economics}}
* {{annotated link|African-American middle class}}
* {{annotated link|British class system}}
* {{annotated link|Classlessness}}
* {{annotated link|Cultural determinism}}
* {{annotated link|The Lonely Crowd}}
* {{annotated link|Lower middle class}}
* {{annotated link|Lower social class|Lower class}}
* {{annotated link|Middle-class squeeze}}
* {{annotated link|Occupational prestige}}
* {{annotated link|One-third hypothesis}}
* [[Petite bourgeoisie]]
* {{annotated link|Status paradox#Status paradox of migration}}
* {{annotated link|Upper middle class}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Balzer, Harley D., ed. ''Russia's Missing Middle Class: The Professions in Russian History'' (M.E. Sharpe, 1996).
* {{cite book |last=Banerjee, Abhijit V. and Esther Duflo|date=December 2007 |title=What is middle class about the middle classes around the world? |url=http://econ-www.mit.edu/files/3107 |access-date=9 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090525093400/http://econ-www.mit.edu/files/3107 |archive-date=25 May 2009 |url-status=dead |format=PDF |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Economics  |pages=50 }}
* Blackbourn, David, and Richard J. Evans, eds. ''The German Bourgeoisie: Essays on the Social History of the German Middle Class from the Late Eighteenth to the Early Twentieth Century'' (1991).
* Cashell, Brian W. [https://web.archive.org/web/20071030122805/http://opencrs.cdt.org/rpts/RS22627_20070320.pdf ''Who Are the "Middle Class"?''], [[Congressional Research Service|CRS]] Report for the Congress, 20 March 2007
* Dejung, Christof, David Motadel, and Jürgen Osterhammel, eds. ''The Global Bourgeoisie: The Rise of the Middle Classes in the Age of Empire'' (2019) scholarly essays covering major countries and region s in 19th century [https://www.amazon.com/Global-Bourgeoisie-Middle-Classes-Empire/dp/0691177341/   excerpt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521155411/https://www.amazon.com/Global-Bourgeoisie-Middle-Classes-Empire/dp/0691177341 |date=2022-05-21 }} also [https://www.jstor.org/action/doAdvancedSearch?q0=%22The+Global+Bourgeoisie%22&f0=ti&c1=AND&q1=&f1=all&c2=AND&q2=&f2=all&c3=AND&q3=&f3=all&c4=AND&q4=&f4=all&c5=AND&q5=&f5=all&c6=AND&q6=&f6=all&acc=off&bk=on&la=&sd=&ed=&pt=&isbn=&group=none chapters online] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310004042/https://www.jstor.org/action/doAdvancedSearch?q0=%22The+Global+Bourgeoisie%22&f0=ti&c1=AND&q1=&f1=all&c2=AND&q2=&f2=all&c3=AND&q3=&f3=all&c4=AND&q4=&f4=all&c5=AND&q5=&f5=all&c6=AND&q6=&f6=all&acc=off&bk=on&la=&sd=&ed=&pt=&isbn=&group=none |date=2021-03-10 }})
* Jones, Larry Eugene. "'The Dying Middle': Weimar Germany and the Fragmentation of Bourgeois Politics." ''Central European History'' 5.1 (1972): 23–54.
* Kocka, Jürgen. "The Middle Classes in Europe," ''Journal of Modern History'' 67#4 (1995): 783–806. doi.org/10.1086/245228. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2124755 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310154049/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2124755 |date=2021-03-10 }}
* Kocka, Jürgen, and J. Allan Mitchell, eds. ''Bourgeois Society in 19th Century Europe '' (1992)
* Lebovics, Herman. ''Social Conservatism and the Middle Class in Germany, 1914–1933'' (Princeton UP, 2015).
* López, A. Ricardo, and Barbara Weinstein, eds. ''The Making of the Middle Class: Toward a Transnational History'' (Duke University Press, 2012) 446 pp. scholarly essays
* McKibbin, Ross. ''Classes and Cultures: England 1918–1951'' (2000) pp 44–105.
* Mills, C. Wright, ''White Collar: The American Middle Classes'' (1951).
* Pilbeam, Pamela. ''The Middle Classes in Europe, 1789–1914: France, Germany, Italy, and Russia'' (1990)
* Wells, Jonathan Daniel. "The Southern Middle Class," ''Journal of Southern History,'' Volume: 75#3 2009. pp 651+.
* Williams, E. N. "Our Merchants Are Princes": The English Middle Classes In The Eighteenth Century". ''History Today'' (Aug 1962), Vol. 12 Issue 8, pp. 548–557.

==External links==
* {{cite web |url=http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/05/11/are-you-in-the-american-middle-class/ |title= Are you in the American middle class? Find out with our income calculator |last1=Fry |first1=Richard |last2=Kochhar |first2=Rakesh |date=11 May 2016 |website=Pew Research Center }}
* [http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1636594.htm Beazley reaches out to 'middle Australia']
* NOW on PBS: [https://web.archive.org/web/20080205050318/http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/405/index.html "Middle Class Insecurity"] Are politicians listening to middle-class families on the edge of economic collapse?
* [http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2015/07/Global-Middle-Class-Report_FINAL_7-8-15.pdf Contains estimates on the size of the middle class in various countries]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=QEQrBQAAQBAJ&dq=latin+america+middle+class+size+2014&pg=PA84 Contains estimates on the size of the middle class in Latin America and other countries]
* [http://ecdpm.org/wp-content/uploads/DP167-Africas-Middle-Class-Plenty-Extreme-Poverty-October-2014.pdf Contains Contains estimates on the size of the middle class in Africa, based on various definitions]
* [https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Imagine_There_s_No_Country/nJJ6SP9zejwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=The+miracle+of+Asia+is+one+of+the+most+prominent+results&pg=PA187&printsec=frontcover Includes details of the percentage of middle class persons in various parts of the world from 1960 to 2000]

{{Social class}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Middle Class}}
[[Category:Middle class| ]]
[[Category:1740s neologisms]]
[[Category:Social classes]]