The term "middle class" connotes a variety things, such a homeownership, raising children, having modest emergency funds and retirement savings and an occasional splurge.
In a new report, SmartAsset uses a Pew Research definition of the term to rank U.S. cities based on the highest incomes that households need to be considered middle class: earners with annual household incomes between two-thirds and double the national median household income.
As median household income varies considerably across the country, the report notes, depending on factors including the local job market, housing market and infrastructure, so do the bounds on what constitutes a middle-class income.
SmartAsset analyzed U.S. Census Bureau's 2024 1-year American Community Survey data for the median household income in 100 of the largest U.S. cities and applied a variation of the Pew Research definition of middle-income households to determine the middle-class income range.
See the accompanying gallery for the 12 cities where households needed the highest incomes to maintain middle-class standing.
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