The cost of living in each city and the estimated size of each family have a direct influence on establishing the minimum income for each socioeconomic level.
Although the Pew Research Center established in 2020 that the middle class range in the United States was between $52,000 and $156,000, new studies have delved into research to analyze the changing economic conditions of each state. Recently, a publication specialized in economic information managed to determine the updated data on how much you have to earn in Florida to be part of the middle class.
The report, published in the last quarter of 2023, allows us to know the current conditions of the Sunshine State due to the cost of living and the estimated size of each home, which significantly influence the amount of money a family needs to qualify as a class. half.
The exact amount of money to be middle class in Florida
Based on official data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Consumer Affairs established that the minimum figure for a family of four in Florida to belong to the middle class amounts to US$67,835; a data very similar to that reported by other states such as Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Utah.
The level of the middle class by cities in Florida
In the first half of 2023, a separate report from finance website SmartAsset took the analysis further and managed to list the variants of income needed to qualify as middle class in the 100 largest US cities; In the case of Florida, five cities that appeared on the list with these average incomes were considered:
St. Petersburg: US$64,141.
Tampa: US$63,404.
Jacksonville: US$58,621.
Orlando: US$54,167.
Miami: US$48,789.
The report determined that, nationally, the cities with the lowest income limits of the range necessary to be considered in the intermediate socioeconomic level were Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Buffalo, New York; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Newark, New Jersey. “The American middle class has many different faces. You can earn $24,000 in Cleveland or $310,000 in Freemont and be considered equal in rank,” explained Jaclyn DeJohn, editor of that analysis.
Are there more or fewer families in the middle class in the US?
Oliver Rust, head of product at inflation data monitoring platform Truflation, said the number of middle-class families has remained fairly stable over the past decade. However, lately they have had to struggle with financial insecurity, which has led them into debt.
He explained that although many people are leaving the middle class towards the lower class, others also manage to grow their income and classify themselves as the upper class. “Another important factor to take into account is the aging of the American population. Typically, retirees live off their savings and generate little income. This dynamic, combined with a greater number of immigrants, tends to lower average incomes,” the expert explained.
“Historically, the middle class has been the engine of economic growth and prosperity in the United States,” he said on the occasion of the presentation of the Consumer Affairs study. However, he pointed out that currently the middle class occupies a smaller part of the income than in the 60s, 70s and 80s, which results in a reduction of the economic spectrum.