The American middle class has been declining for decades. But even in its diminished state, presidential candidates still play to it, promising to protect middle-class families, defend middle-class values and cut middle-class taxes. So what is this decaying economic group, and who's part of it? The AJC polled residents in 10 metro counties to find out. Click here for more information about the poll and why the AJC conducted it.
Middle class is as middle class does
The takeaway: Being middle class comes with an array of cultural expectations, but one stands out above all the rest: work hard (and keep the grass mowed while you're at it).
AJC poll nuggets: It's often said that being middle class means exhibiting certain attitudes and behaviors; in the view of our poll respondents, that was certainly true – more so with some attitudes and behaviors than others.
Pollsters asked each person how much they agreed or disagreed with six statements. The statements, which began with the words “Middle class people …” ended with these six propositions:
- live a religious lifestyle.
- get married before having children.
- keep up their homes to the same standard as their neighbors.
- work hard to get ahead.
- stay out of trouble with the law.
- save money to send their kids to college.
(Caveat: Just because respondents associate a given behavior with the middle class, that doesn’t mean they associate it exclusively with the middle class. Also, our poll was only a snapshot; it doesn’t reveal how cultural attitudes – say, about out-of-wedlock births – may have shifted over time.)
More than half of respondents agreed with all six statements, but working hard topped the others by more than 10 percentage points, with 91 percent buy-in. Next came keeping the house up (78 percent), followed by saving money for kids’ college (75 percent) and staying out of trouble with the law (71 percent). Trailing the pack were marriage-before-children (57 percent) and being religious (56 percent).
Some statements resonated more powerfully with certain demographic groups. For instance, the religion statement scored roughly 20 points higher with folks over the age of 45. Whites were more likely than blacks or Latinos to agree with the marriage-before-kids statement. Republicans and people over 35 were considerably more apt to equate being middle class with staying out of trouble with the law.
Data: There doesn't seem to be a lot of research on how closely membership in the middle class (however one defines it) actually correlates to the behaviors tested in the poll. Among the studies we found, some suggest that common stereotypes can miss the mark. For instance, despite the image of the middle class as more upstanding than the wealthy (who are stereotyped as indolent and morally untethered), research reveals that rich people attend church more frequently than middle income folks.
On the other hand, our poll responses can be interpreted as evidence of the human tendency to project one’s own values and behaviors onto whatever larger group one identifies with. Younger people get in trouble with the law more often; they’re less likely to think the middle class is always on the straight and narrow. Blacks and Latinos are more likely to have children outside of marriage; they’re less likely to see that as running counter to middle class membership. Women, whose incomes generally trail those of men, put extra stock in the notion of striving to get ahead.
About the poll
This survey that forms the basis of this report was conducted for the AJC by the A.L. Burruss Institute of Public Service & Research at Kennesaw State University. It was conducted by telephone June 17-24 with 625 adult residents of 10 metro Atlanta counties*. The survey included both landline telephones and cellphones. Prior to analysis, the results were weighted by mode (landline vs. cell), gender, age, education, race, ethnic origin (Latino vs. non-Latino), household size and county of residence to reflect the distribution of these characteristics in the adult population in the Atlanta area. The margin of error for the sample as a whole is ± 4%.
* Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, Rockdale
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