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Home / Reports / 2022 State of the Union / Standard of Living

Standard of Living

Before the pandemic, middle-class families received an average market income of $52,200 from wages, investments, retirement, and more.

Adjusted for inflation, that’s $2,600 less than in 2000, with a greater proportion from retirement savings like pensions and 401(K)s.

Standard of Living

Middle-class families receive an average $20,700 in government assistance from programs like Medicare, Social Security, and food stamps.

That’s $8,300 more than in 2000 — with a greater proportion from healthcare and tax credits. ​

Standard of Living

Middle-class wealth has increased 82.1% since 1990. However, middle-class families went from owning 12.2% of wealth in 1990 to 7.2% in 2021.

Over the same period, the wealth of the top 1% increased 379.9%, and their share of total wealth increased from 17.1% to 26.9%.​

Standard of Living

The nonfarm employee quits rate hit a 20-year high in September and November 2021 when 3.0% of employees quit their jobs.

The leisure and hospitality and retail trade sectors had 2021's highest quits rate, 5.5% and 4.2%, respectively.

Standard of Living

The poverty rate decreased from 15.1% in 2010 to 11.4% in 2020.

The rate fell from 27.4% to 19.5% for Black Americans and 26.5% to 17.0% for Hispanic Americans.

Standard of Living

From December 2020 to December 2021, the number of households nationwide reporting difficulty paying for expenses decreased 7 percentage points to 30.5%.

That’s 68.6 million households. Black households were the most likely to report difficulty (42.9%) but also improved the most among racial groups, down from 54.9% in 2020.

Standard of Living

About 6.4% of US adults faced housing insecurity in December 2021.

The Census Bureau defines housing insecurity as adults in households who aren’t current on rent or mortgage payments and who have slight or no confidence that they can pay next month's rent or mortgage on time.

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