Are you in the American middle class? Find out with our income calculator

About half of American adults lived in middle-income households in 2014, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data. In percentage terms, 51% of adults lived in middle-income households, 29% in lower-income households and 20% in upper-income households.

Our updated calculator below lets you find out which group you are in – first compared with other adults in your metropolitan area and among American adults overall, and then compared with other adults in the U.S. similar to you in education, age, race or ethnicity, and marital status.

Find out if you are in the American middle class with our income calculator. 

Our new analysis shows that the American middle class lost ground in the vast majority of metropolitan areas from 2000 to 2014, and the shares of adults in the lower- and upper-income ranks rose in most areas. There was more movement into the upper-income tier in about half the areas, while in the other half there was more movement downward.

The calculator takes your household income and adjusts it for the size of your household. The income is revised upward for households that are below average in size and downward for those that are above average. This way, each household’s income is made equivalent to the income of a three-person household (the whole number nearest to the average size of a U.S. household, which was 2.5 in 2014).

Pew Research Center does not store or share any of the information you enter.

Your size-adjusted household income and the cost of living in your area are the factors we use to determine your income tier. Middle-income households – those with an income that is two-thirds to double the U.S. median household income – had incomes ranging from about $42,000 to $125,000 in 2014. Lower-income households had incomes less than $42,000 and upper-income households had incomes greater than $125,000 (all figures computed for three-person households, adjusted for the cost of living in a metropolitan area, and expressed in 2013-14 dollars).

The cost-of-living adjustment for an area was calculated as follows: Jackson, Tennessee, is a relatively inexpensive area, with a price level that is 17% less than the national average. The Hawaii metropolitan area known as Urban Honolulu is one of the most expensive areas, with a price level that is 22.5% higher than the national average. Thus, to step over the national middle-class threshold of $42,000, a household in Jackson needs an income of only about $34,600, or 17% less than the national standard. But a household in Urban Honolulu needs a reported income of about $51,000, or 22.5% more than the U.S. norm, to join the middle class.

The income calculator encompasses 229 of 381 metropolitan areas in the U.S., as defined by the Office of Management and Budget. If you live in an area outside of one of these 229 areas, the calculator reports the estimates for your state.

The second part of our calculator asks you more questions about yourself, such as age, race or ethnicity, and marital status. This allows you to see how other adults who are similar to you demographically are distributed across lower-, middle- and upper-income tiers in the U.S. overall. It does not recompute your economic tier.

Note: Previous versions of this post and interactive calculator were published Dec. 9, 2015. Both have been updated to reflect the Center’s new analysis.

Related: Are you in the global middle class? Find out with our income calculator

Topics: Global Migration and Demography, Socioeconomic Class, Economics and Personal Finances