(AURN NEWS) — The Pew Research Center has unveiled a new online calculator designed to help Americans gauge their economic standing. The new tool allows you to determine whether you fall into the lower, middle, or upper-income category. Users are prompted to input key information, including their state of residence, metropolitan area, household income before taxes, and the number of people in their household. Utilizing data from 2022, the tool then processes this information to categorize your household as lower, middle, or upper income.
The calculator also offers an additional feature that allows for more nuanced comparisons. You can also input further demographic details such as education level, age, race, and marital status. With this information, the calculator provides a comparison of your economic standing to others with similar demographic profiles.
According to Pew, 52% of U.S. adults reside in middle-income households, while 28% are classified as lower-income, and 19% fall into the upper-income category. The Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater metropolitan area in Washington state boasted the highest percentage of middle-income households at 46%. In contrast, Laredo, Texas had the largest share of lower-income households, also at 46%. The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area in California stood out with the highest percentage of upper-income households, at 41%.
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