Upper middle class

This article is about socio-economic studies. For the musical work, see Upper Middle Class White Trash.

Higher education is not a sufficient condition for the upper-middle class, and is a characteristic shared with many members of the lower-middle class.

In sociology, the upper-middle class is the social group constituted by higher status members of the middle class, in contrast to the lower middle class. The definition is debated. Max Weber controversially defined it as the group of professionals with postgraduate degrees, but most Americans and Europeans identify income as the primary determiner of class.

The American upper-middle class is primarily defined by using income, occupation, cultural privilege, and education; it consists mostly of white-collar professionals with above-average personal incomes and above-average autonomy in their work.^[1] The occupational tasks of upper-middle class individuals tend to be conceptualizing, consulting, and instruction.^[2]

American upper-middle class

Main article: Upper middle class in the United States

The definition of the American middle class (and its subdivisions) is contested.^[3] In academic models, the term "upper-middle class" applies to highly salaried professionals whose work enables above-average autonomy.^[4] Household incomes exceed $100,000 (equivalent to $164,849 in 2025).^[5] Professions for this class may include: judges, senior military officers, financial planners, engineers, professors, architects, airline pilots, and businessmen.

The upper-middle class has grown ... and its composition has changed. Increasingly salaried managers and professionals have replaced individual business owners and independent professionals. The key to the success of the upper-middle class is the growing importance of educational certification ... its lifestyles and opinions are becoming increasingly normative for the whole society. It is in fact a porous class, open to people ... who earn the right credentials.

— Dennis Gilbert, The American Class Structure, 1998^[6]

In addition to the above-average autonomy in their work and their higher incomes, the upper-middle class also tends to be socioculturally influential.^[7] Most members of this class are secure from economic downturns and, unlike their counterparts in the statistical middle class, are mostly unaffected by corporate cost-cutting and outsourcing, because of their advanced experience and education. Their incomes are usually in the top income quintile or top third.^[4]

Income

Further information: Affluence in the United States, Household income in the United States, and Personal income in the United States

Whilst many Americans believe that income is the primary determiner of class: occupation, cultural privilege, and educational attainment, are important. Income is determined by the replaceability of skills.^[4] A socially contributive occupation that needs seldom encountered skills will offer higher remuneration.^[8] There are also differences between household and individual income. In 2005, 42% of US households (76% among the top quintile) had two or more income earners; as a result, 18% of households but only 5% of individuals had six-figure incomes.^[9] To illustrate, two nurses each making $55,000 per year can out-earn, in a household sense, a single attorney who makes a median of $95,000 annually.^[10][11]

Sociologists Dennis Gilbert, William Thompson and Joseph Hickey estimate the upper-middle class to constitute roughly 15% of the population. Using the 15% figure one may define the American upper-middle class consists as the group of persons whose personal income exceeds $62,500 ($101,000 in 2024 dollars), who commonly reside in households with six-figure incomes.^[5][9][12] The difference between personal and household income can be explained by considering that 76% of households with incomes exceeding $90,000 (the top 20%, $170,000 to cross this threshold in 2020 dollars) had two or more income earners.^[9] In 2024, the threshold for entering the top 10% of American household incomes is $230,000 ^[13]

Income statistics (2006)^[14][15]

Data	Top third	Top quarter	Top quintile	Top 15%	Top 10%	Top 5%
Household income[14]
Lower threshold (annual gross income)	$65,000	$80,000	$91,705	$100,000	$118,200	$166,200
Exact percentage of households	34.72%	25.60%	20.00%	17.80%	10.00%	5.00%
Personal income (age 25+)[15]
Lower threshold (annual gross income)	$37,500	$47,500	$52,500	$62,500	$75,000	$100,000
Exact percentage of individuals	33.55%	24.03%	19.74%	14.47%	10.29%	5.63%

Income statistics (2024) (source from 2006, inflation adjusted)^[14][15]

Data	Top third	Top quarter	Top quintile	Top 15%	Top 10%	Top 5%
Household income[14]
Lower threshold (annual gross income)	$103,000	$127,000	$145,000	$158,618	$187,000	$263,000
Exact percentage of households	34.72%	25.60%	20.00%	17.80%	10.00%	5.00%
Personal income (age 25+)[15]
Lower threshold (annual gross income)	$59,000	$75,000	$83,000	$99,000	$119,000	$159,000
Exact percentage of individuals	33.55%	24.03%	19.74%	14.47%	10.29%	5.63%

The above income thresholds may vary greatly based on region due to significant differences in average income based on region and urban, suburban, or rural development. In more expensive suburbs, the threshold for the top 15% of income earners may be much higher. For example, in 2006 the ten highest income counties had median household incomes of $85,000 compared to a national average of about $50,000. The top 15% of all US income earners nationally tend to be more concentrated in these richer suburban counties where the cost of living is also higher. If middle-class households earning between the 50th percentile ($46,000) and the 85th percentile ($62,500) tend to live in lower cost of living areas, then their difference in real income may be smaller than what the differences in nominal income suggest.

Values

Political ideology is not correlated with social class. In terms of income, liberals tend to be tied with pro-business conservatives.^[16] Most mass affluent households tend to be more right-leaning on fiscal issues but more left-leaning on social issues.^[17] The majority, between 50% and 60%, of households with incomes above $50,000 overall, not all of whom are upper-middle class,^[6] supported the Republican Party in the 2000, 2004, and 2006 elections.^[18][19]

The upper-middle class is often the group that creates popular social movements, such as the peace movement, the anti-nuclear movement, environmentalism, the anti-smoking movement, and in the past the blue laws and the temperance movement. Some people claim that this is because it is the largest class (and also the lowest class) to have any economic power to fund campaigns for change, whilst others claim that it is because of their self-assumed moral responsibility to "save [less intelligent] people from themselves".^[2]

British upper-middle class

Further information: Social class in the United Kingdom § Upper middle class

The British upper-middle class mostly consists of the professionals who were born into higher-income backgrounds, such as judges and executives. It traditionally uses Received Pronunciation.^{[citation needed]} Children of this group are usually educated at a preparatory school, until about 13 years of age, and then at one of the British public schools,^[20][21] a place at which typically costs at least £11,500 per year.^[22][23]

See also

• Society portal

• Bildungsbürgertum
• Black elite
• Bourgeoisie
• Chungin
• Grand Burgher
• Hipster (contemporary subculture)
• Professional–managerial class
• Upper class
• Yuppie

References

Citations

1. Eichar 1989.
2. Ehrenreich 1989.
3. "Middle class according to The Drum Major Institute for public policy". PBS. Archived from the original on 1 April 2004. Retrieved 25 July 2006.
4. Thompson & Hickey 2005.
5. Gilbert 1998; Thompson & Hickey 2005.
6. Gilbert 1998.
7. Ehrenreich 1989; Gilbert 1998.
8. Levine 1998.
9. "US Census Bureau, income quintile and top 5% household income distribution and demographic characteristics, 2006". Archived from the original on 4 January 2007. Retrieved 28 December 2006.
10. "US Department of Labor, median income of registered nurses". Retrieved 2 January 2007.
11. "Bureau of Labor statistics data published by Monster.com, 20 highest paying jobs". Archived from the original on 27 December 2006. Retrieved 27 December 2006.
12. "US Census Bureau, distribution of personal income, 2006". Archived from the original on 23 December 2006. Retrieved 9 December 2006.
13. "Household Income Percentile Calculator for the United States in 2020". Retrieved 8 February 2020.
14. "US Census Bureau, overall household income distribution, 2006". Archived from the original on 4 January 2007. Retrieved 28 December 2006.
15. "US Census Bureau, personal income distribution, age 25+, 2006". Archived from the original on 19 March 2007. Retrieved 28 December 2006.
16. "Pew Research Center. (10 May 2005). Beyond Red vs. Blue". Archived from the original on 2 May 2007. Retrieved 12 July 2007.
17. Arora, Raksha; Saad, Lydia (9 December 2004). "Marketing to the Mass Affluent". Gallup Management Journal. Gallup Press. Retrieved 19 July 2007.
18. "CNN. (2000). Exit Poll". Archived from the original on 22 May 2008. Retrieved 27 May 2008.
19. "CNN. (2004). Exit Poll". Retrieved 27 May 2008.
20. Delingpole, James (17 December 2011). "Thank God I Don't Have that Ghastly Sense of Entitlement that Eton Instils". The Spectator. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
21. Byrnes, Sholto (20 April 2010). "Who's Posher: Clegg or Cameron?". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
22. Farndale, Nigel (28 January 2013). "Is There a Private School Prejudice?". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
23. Trainor 2000, p. 679.

Bibliography

• Comet, Catherine; Finez, Jean (2010). "Le cœur de l'élite patronale". Sociologies Pratiques (in French). 2 (21): 49–66. doi:10.3917/sopr.021.0049. ISBN 978-2-7246-3205-7. ISSN 2104-3787.
• Ehrenreich, Barbara (1989). Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-097333-9.
• Eichar, Douglas M. (1989). Occupation and Class Consciousness in America. Contributions in Labor Studies. Vol. 27. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-26111-4. ISSN 0886-8239.
• Gilbert, Dennis (1998). The American Class Structure. New York: Wadsworth Publishing. ISBN 978-0-534-50520-2.
• Levine, Rhonda (1998). Social Class and Stratification. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-8476-8543-1.
• Trainor, Richard (2000). "The Middle Class". In Daunton, Martin (ed.). The Cambridge Urban History of Britain. Volume 3: 1840–1950. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-41707-5.
• Pinçon-Charlot, Monique; Pinçon, Michel (2010). "Regard sociologique sur l'oligarchie: Entretien avec Monique Pinçon-Charlot et Michel Pinçon" [Sociological view on the oligarchy: Interview with Monique Pinçon-Charlot and Michel Pinçon]. Mouvements (in French). 4 (64). Interviewed by Bourdeau, Vincent; Flory, Julienne; Maric, Michel: 22–40. doi:10.3917/mouv.064.0022. ISBN 978-2-7071-6653-1. ISSN 1776-2995.
• Thompson, William E.; Hickey, Joseph V. (2005). Society in Focus (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson. ISBN 978-0-205-41365-2.

Further reading

• Bagley, Bruce Michael (1990). "Middle Class". In Hanratty, Dennis M.; Meditz, Sandra W. (eds.). Colombia: A Country Study (PDF) (4th ed.). Washington: Government Printing Office. pp. 87–90. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 February 2017. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
• Lamont, Michèle (2012). Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and the American Upper-Middle Class. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-92259-1.