🇺🇸 United States·Household income · Pew class bands·ACS 2024 · by state
Are you upper-middle class in your state?
Pick your state. Type your household income. See if you cross the line — and what it really means where you live.
My household earns $/ YEAR a year in .
In Texas · your household
Upper-middle class
Above the upper-middle line
$5,990 above the $124,010 line
In Texas, upper-middle class starts at $124,010 (the median of $79,721 × 14/9). Upper income begins at $159,442.
The four bands in Texas
Where your income lands on the class ladder.
Pew anchors every band to the state median ($79,721). Lower income is below two-thirds of it; the middle class runs to twice it; upper-middle is the top third of that middle band; upper income is everything above 2×.
Lower
Middle
Upper-middle
Upper
$53K
$124K
$159K
YOU
Bands per Pew Research Center: lower below $53,147 · middle to $124,010 · upper-middle to $159,442 · upper above.
Same paycheck, 50 different lines
Your income clears the upper-middle line in 34 of 50 states.
The line ranges from $91,975 in Mississippi to $163,066 in Massachusetts. Move state and your class can change without your salary moving a dollar. Green means you are at or above that state's upper-middle threshold.
Sort by
State
Upper-middle line
You
Massachusetts
$163,066
No
New Jersey
$162,235
No
Maryland
$160,074
No
Hawaii
$156,714
No
California
$155,787
No
New Hampshire
$155,216
No
Washington
$154,605
No
Colorado
$151,065
No
Utah
$150,357
No
Connecticut
$149,410
No
Alaska
$148,812
No
Virginia
$143,251
No
Delaware
$136,164
No
Minnesota
$135,515
No
New York
$133,498
No
Oregon
$132,564
No
Rhode Island
$129,895
✓ Yes
Illinois
$129,439
✓ Yes
Vermont
$128,691
✓ Yes
Arizona
$126,756
✓ Yes
Idaho
$126,258
✓ Yes
Nevada
$126,208
✓ Yes
Georgia
$124,430
✓ Yes
Texasyour state
$124,010
✓ Yes
North Dakota
$121,133
✓ Yes
Florida
$120,921
✓ Yes
Pennsylvania
$120,626
✓ Yes
Wisconsin
$120,537
✓ Yes
South Dakota
$119,593
✓ Yes
Maine
$118,910
✓ Yes
Nebraska
$118,807
✓ Yes
Wyoming
$117,494
✓ Yes
Kansas
$117,466
✓ Yes
Iowa
$117,446
✓ Yes
Montana
$117,196
✓ Yes
North Carolina
$115,046
✓ Yes
Michigan
$112,605
✓ Yes
South Carolina
$112,544
✓ Yes
Ohio
$112,330
✓ Yes
Tennessee
$111,995
✓ Yes
Indiana
$111,936
✓ Yes
Missouri
$111,361
✓ Yes
New Mexico
$105,492
✓ Yes
Alabama
$103,692
✓ Yes
Oklahoma
$102,897
✓ Yes
Kentucky
$100,374
✓ Yes
Arkansas
$96,609
✓ Yes
Louisiana
$94,867
✓ Yes
West Virginia
$94,575
✓ Yes
Mississippi
$91,975
✓ Yes
Each row's bar runs from 0 to twice that state's median (the upper-income line). The vertical notch is the state's upper-middle line (median × 14/9); the fill is your income.
Three numbers worth the asterisk
What the label hides.
The state spread
The upper-middle line in Massachusetts is 1.77× the line in Mississippi.
$163,066 in Massachusetts versus $91,975 in Mississippi. A household at the same paycheck is comfortably upper-middle in one state and merely middle class in the other. The label is a statement about your neighbours, not your purchasing power.
The 14/9 rule
Upper-middle class is a precise fraction, not a vibe.
Pew defines the middle class as 2/3 to 2× the median. The upper-middle slice is the top third of that band, which works out to exactly median × 14/9. Above 2× the median you are upper income, not upper-middle.
Cost of living, unsaid
A class label is not a standard of living.
Because the line is pegged to each state's own median, it captures relative standing, not absolute comfort. A dollar still stretches further in Mississippi than in Massachusetts; the class label says nothing about that. Pair this with a cost-of-living view for the full picture.
Class is relative. Cost of living is not.
The same upper-middle income buys a very different life in San Francisco than in Jackson. See the cost-of-living comparison.
→
Next steps
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Frequently asked questions
We use the Pew Research Center definition: the middle class runs from 2/3 to 2× the state's median household income. The upper-middle class is the top third of that band — in other words, state median × 14/9 up to state median × 2. Anyone above 2× median is upper class; below 2/3× median is below middle class.
Every state median on this page is the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 2024 1-year estimate, as compiled by GOBankingRates in February 2026. These are published, pre-tax, total household income figures — the same numbers used in the Census's official annual state-by-state rankings.
Because the state median does. Massachusetts has the highest state median household income in America ($104,828), so 14/9 of that — the upper-middle class threshold — works out to $163,066. Mississippi, with the lowest state median ($59,127), has an upper-middle class threshold of just $91,975. The class label is a ratio, not a dollar amount.
Gross — pre-tax total household income, which is how the Census reports it. A household earning $150,000 in California doesn't keep $150,000 after federal and state tax; but that's the income figure that feeds the published median and therefore the class thresholds.
Hawaii's median household income ($100,745) is the 4th-highest in the country, so its upper-middle threshold ($156,714) sits at rank 4 too. High cost of living doesn't automatically translate into high incomes — which is why being upper-middle class in Hawaii can still feel tighter than in Massachusetts.
It doesn't. The Pew method uses a pure ratio (2/3 to 2× state median), which partly adjusts for state-level purchasing power but not fully. A $100k household in Jackson, MS genuinely has more discretionary income than a $100k household in San Jose, CA — even though both are classified 'upper-middle' there. For a cleaner cost-of-living comparison, our city cost-of-living tool linked below goes further.
Not legally, no. But the 'upper-middle' / 'middle' / 'lower-middle' framing is how researchers, journalists and policy analysts talk about income brackets — so it's worth knowing where you land. More importantly, the gap to the next tier tells you something concrete: a raise, a job change, or a working partner can often move a household one full class tier. A savings rate can move wealth even faster.