Up to one third of middle-income Americans living in the nation’s largest metro areas are having a hard time making ends meet, reveals a comprehensive report just issued by the Washington-based Brookings Institute.
In looking at data from 160 metro areas containing at least 100,000 individual households, the report, In Every Corner of the Country, The Middle Class Struggles with Affordability, asserts that “the promise of the American dream, living a comfortable life and leaving a foundation for future generations, is not materializing for today’s middle class.”
Upwards of 27% of white families are defined by the Brookings report as not being able to afford housing, food, and childcare. The figure at 39% is higher for Black families; and goes up to 46% for Native Americans.
Middle class families in the report are defined as those earning incomes within 60% of all wage earners in the country. Using that metric, the overall average income for a middle class family comes in at $79,000. Asian American and white families came in above that average at $81,000, followed by $75,000 for Native American families, $73,000 for Hispanic families, and $70,000 for Black families.
Life in general is regarded as affordable, notes the report, “when a household’s income is equal to or greater than the total cost of living.”
Numbers compiled by Brookings show progress in one fundamental direction: the number of minority families in the U.S. that are defined as middle class, which is now at a historic high.
The report also shows middle class families able to afford the basic necessities are most notable in parts of Indiana, Georgia, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. A much wider swath, at 60% to 70%, of families who can afford those necessities, stretches from the East coast to the West coast, with pockets of strength in the Middle West and West.
Parts of the country where only 50% to 60% of families can afford the necessities range from the New York-New Jersey region, to southern Florida. In that category can also be found the metro areas of Fort Collins, Colorado, and the Prescott Valley of Arizona.
Roughly 68% of all middle-class families in Albuquerque can handle the necessities, followed by 66% of metro Denver, 63% of metro Phoenix, and 61% of metro El Paso.
Despite the overall upward projection of middle-income families in the country, concludes the report, the affordability challenge remains great. “Those who cannot afford basic necessities are more likely to go into debt, and are unable to save and invest, making them more vulnerable to economic shocks.”
December 11, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
