Not that I think that this is the last word on the subject (there’s NEVER a last word on CC, lol), but I thought this table published by Pew Charitable Trust was very good. Pretending that you can be middle class in Westchester, NY on the same income as Boise is just silly, so I think this can give us all some good insight on areas of the country other than our own. http://twocents.lifehacker.com/the-salary-required-to-be-middle-class-in-every-state-1695393156
Well that still doesn’t give me the Westchester middle class. 
I’m pretty sure I’d be poor in Silicon Valley but rich in Yreka. The averages for a large state don’t mean much.
CT is a small state…but there is a large difference between Fairfield County, and Tolland County.
Even within a single state, these figures don’t work that well. It seems to me that the problem is housing costs. Housing costs SEEM to rise much more precipitately than wages; that is, I have the feeling that the cost of living in a place with top wages is proportionately higher. In my state, for example, the areas where one could live comfortably on the lower bound of middle class income (just above $30K) are areas where it is very hard to find a job making that much that also has health insurance.
Here I pay the same for a 3 bedroom house as I would for a one bedroom apartment less than 10 minutes away in Ann Arbor. Which is why I choose not to live in Ann Arbor 
I live in Maryland, and I have no idea how we could be the highest. NY, Hawaii, CA, yes. Maryland… What the heck?
And even in MD, if you are close to DC you need much more to live than if you are elsewhere, except on the Chesapeake Bay or other waterfront.
$57K in NYC, hmmm, no. NY is a very large state.
I think those upper boundaries are what’s the take-home message here. No, 250K is not middle class. not anywhere.
I don’t see my state, denial??
67% to 200% of median income seems rather arbitrary.
Though considering the source, I’m surprised they stopped at 200%.
Of course, the typical definition of “middle class” on these forums seems to be about four times the median income (getting into the “no financial aid anywhere” range).
So what’s the income range for “upper-middle” class and “upper-upper-middle” class?
Above, I meant to say that the cost of living in high wage areas is DIS-proportionately higher. Sheesh.
Interesting. Pew defines middle class income between 67% and 200% of median income. I like their adjustment to include 200%. I beginning to think “middle class” means more the income. It’s a segment of population with enough income to influence the society but not so wealthy to make them rare. A sweet spot where enough peopl have enough income. It may be that in old days median income group were most influential. These days when 50% population don’t earn enough to owe tax, we can’t expect them to be influential. I think the lower bound 67% in pew study should be raised to align our perception of middle class, maybe to 120%
Without this information broken down by city, I don’t think it’s all that accurate. Even in the tiny state of Delaware, there’s a huge difference between upstate and lower Delaware. West Chester County, NY and Binghamton? It’s interesting but of little value.
The latest news from Stanford is that they will not ask for tuition from those families with income less than $125,000.
In other words, upper middle class families in most of the states will not have to pay tuition. I would imagine that those families will have extra $$ for a vacation or two.
Going back to the original topic. Like many others have expressed, I think these numbers really do not mean much. The difference between towns in a state is huge. Using one number for the whole state does not make sense.
Furthermore, I strongly believe the “middle class” is a state of the mind. It just can not be quantified by a general set of numbers.
A decade ago, no college would be so generous. Our income was lower than that and we got a big, fat zero in financial aid from every college that our child got into. If I remember it correctly, it was not for sure in those years that the money in the 529 plan is considered as parents’ asset. Also, the equity in the house as well as the assets in the retirement account were taken into considerations on the FA calculation unless we are talking about public/FAFSA-only colleges. This was the case in the “dark age” of financial aid for college.
It is amazing how much change we have had in a decade.
A vacation or two from when a child was born till when he/she attends college? This was what we did in order to afford the college expenses!
http://www.collegecalc.org/colleges/california/stanford-university/ indicates that Stanford’s tuition in 2005 was $30,103 ($36,179 adjusted for CPI inflation to 2015), compared to $45,729 for 2015.
125k income isn’t what it used to be…