There is a nearly $100,000 disparity between household incomes required to be considered middle class in cities across the United States, new data showed.
Households in Cleveland, Ohio, need to make at least $23,827 per year in order to be considered middle class, while across the country in tech cities like Fremont, California, the lower threshold to break into the middle class is $104,499.
The gap between the top end of middle class household incomes in those cities was even greater – with a cap of $71,124 in Cleveland and $311,936 in Fremont.
Data was compiled by SmartAsset using the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, and combined it with metrics from Per Research Center, according to Digg, and compared the top and bottom thresholds of the middle class across 100 cities, along with the across all fifty states.
By state, Maryland came in as the wealthiest state to be middle class in with a median household income of $180,406, tailed closely by Washington DC, and then New Hampshire. The lowest wealth states for the middle class were Mississippi with a median household income of $32,640, then Louisiana and West Virginia close behind.
The west coast dominated the list of wealthiest cities for the middle class, with California cities taking four of the top 10 spots, Arizona cities taking three, and Washington claiming one.
That data also indicated that it was the most difficult to become middle class in those cities – with six-figure incomes required whereas households in most cities across the country needed five-figure incomes as low as $30,000.
Fremont, California, was the wealthiest city for the middle class out of all 100 surveyed, with an entry household income of $104,499, a median income of $155,968, and a top end of $311,936. San Jose, California, landed in number two with a lower end of $84,673, a median of $126,377, and a top end of $252,754.
Arlington, Virginia, held number three with a middle class entry household income of $84,186 per year, a median of $125,651, and a top end of $251,302 per year. At number four, the lower end of San Francisco’s middle class was $81,623, its median was $121,826, and its top end was $243,652.
In the fourth place was Seattle with a lower end of $74,223, a median of $110,781, and a high end of $221,562. Number five was Irvine, California with the lower end of middle class incomes at $70,869, its medians at $105,774, and its top end at $211,548.
Gilbert, Arizona was number seven with an middle class entry household income of $70,217, a median of $104,802 and a high end of $209,604. Also in Arizona, Scottsdale was eight with an entry income of $66,395, a median of $99,097, and a top end of $198,194.
The ninth spot was Plano, Texas, with lower middle class threshold of $63,651 per year, a median of $95,002, and a cap of $190,004. Chandler, Arizona, was the tenth wealthiest city for the middle class with an entry income of $63,391, a median of $94,613, and a high end of $189,226.
Cleveland, Ohio, had the lowest wealth middle class out of all major cities in the United States
Fremont, California, had the wealthiest middle class out of any city in the United States
Ohio dominated the bottom ten cities for middle class wealth, with Cleveland taking the number one spot, Cincinatti landing at number four, and Toledo at six.
Detroit had the second lowest wealth in the middle class with a bottom end of $24,214, a median of $36,140, and a top end of $72,280. Buffalo had an entry income of $27,248, a median of $40,669, and a top end of $81,338.
On a state level, the northeast dominated the rest of the country, with middle class household incomes coming in 20 percent higher than in the south.
Maryland and New Hampshire took the top spots – with median incomes of $180, 406 and $180,176, and then New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New Jersey followed behind at incomes of $176,930, $179,290, and $178,592.
Following those states were California with median middle class incomes of $169,814, Washington at $168,494, Connecticut with $167,542, and Colorado with $164,508.
It comes following other data from SmartAsset which found a $100,000 paycheck goes the furthest in Memphis, Tennessee, while New York City is the worst city in the US to live on the sum.
In Memphis, the take-away value of the six-figure salary coupled with local cost of living equates to about $86,000, while in New York City it is equal to only about $35,000.
Seven out of the ten cheapest cities – where $100,000 went the furthest – were in Texas, while six of the most expensive cities were in California and on the west coast.
The startling data considered state and local taxes, local living costs, and the effects of recent inflation, to determine which cities were the cheapest and most expensive to live in.
Americans facing rising inflation have become nostalgic for prices from just two years ago – when the cost of basic groceries were almost half their price.
In the past, people may have cynically recalled how the cost of everyday items had risen over decades, but now people see prices escalating before their eyes, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
Avocados cost an average of $1 each in early 2021 but had risen to $2.50 just one year later.
‘There is an element of whiplash,’ a 41-year-old marketing consultant told the paper. ‘Was that a bygone era from my youth, or was it just last year?’
According to finance professors, however, psychology also plays a part. On average, people exaggerate the extent of inflation and remember prices being lower than they actually were.
