The American middle course is smaller than centre classes across Western Europe, just its income is higher, according to a recent Pew Research Center analysis of the U.S. and 11 European nations.

The median disposable (after-tax) income of middle-class households in the U.S. was $sixty,884 in 2010. With the exception of Luxembourg – a virtual city-state where the median income was $71,799 – the disposable incomes of middle-class households in the other 10 Western European countries in the written report trailed well backside the American middle class.

In the Center'southward analysis, the eye course in a land consists of adults living in households with dispensable incomes ranging from 2-thirds to double the country'south own median disposable household income (adapted for household size). This definition allows middle-grade incomes to vary across countries, because national incomes vary across countries.

The share of the developed population living in middle-class households in 2010 likewise varies by country. Among the countries examined, the eye-class share in Western Europe ranged from 64% in Spain to 80% in Denmark and Norway. By comparing, the U.South. lagged behind, with a middle-grade share of 59% in 2010.

Western Europe's eye classes, by U.Due south. income standards

While the U.S. middle class may be smaller than those in Western Europe, its standard of living – as measured by its median income – is higher. That raises a question: What shares of adults in Western European countries have the same standard of living as the American middle grade? In other words, what would the eye-form share in Western European countries be if the middle class were defined every bit adults living in households with the aforementioned incomes every bit middle-class households in the U.S.?

In 2010, middle-class households in the U.S. had incomes ranging from $35,294 to $105,881 – that is, two-thirds to double the overall median income of $52,941. This U.Due south. standard tin exist practical to whatever state in Western Europe after incomes are adapted for cost-of-living differences across countries. (Incomes in this analysis are adapted to reflect a household of 3 and are expressed in 2011 prices. They are also converted to purchasing ability parity dollars, which adjusts for price-of-living differences beyond countries. For more, see full methodology.)

When the Western European countries the Heart analyzed are viewed through the lens of middle-class incomes in the U.S., the share of adults who are middle class decreases in most of them. The greatest decline is in Italia, where the center-class share in 2010 falls from 67% nether that country's national income standard to 44% under the U.South. income standard. In other words, 44% of Italians had the same standard of living as 59% of Americans who were in the heart course in 2010.

In nigh Western European countries studied, applying the U.Southward. standard shrinks the eye-grade share past nearly ten percentage points – from 80% to 70% in Denmark, for instance. But the middle-class shares of Luxembourg and Norway are unchanged; their overall median incomes equal or exceed that of the U.Southward.

Applying U.S. incomes as the middle-class standard besides boosts the estimated shares of adults who are in the lower-income tier in near Western European countries (i.eastward., living in households with incomes less than the minimum needed to be in the American middle form). For example, in Denmark, the share of adults living in lower-income households increases from fourteen% to 28% nether the U.S. standard. And a slight majority of adults in Italy and Spain (an estimated 53% each) are in lower-income households by U.S. standards, upwardly from 22% and 24% respectively based on those countries' incomes.

An expansion of the lower-income share in Western European countries when the U.Due south. standard is applied is typically accompanied past a decrease in the upper-income share – that is, the share of adults living in households with incomes greater than the incomes of the American middle class. In France, for example, the upper-income share falls from 9% to four% and the lower-income share increases from 17% to 33% when the U.S. income standard is applied. Luxembourg, where incomes are college than in the U.S., is an exception to these trends. Nether the U.S. income standard, the upper-income share in Luxembourg increases from viii% to 18% and the lower-income share decreases from 17% to 8%.

Overall, regardless of how middle grade fortunes are analyzed, the cloth standard of living in the U.S. is estimated to be meliorate than in nearly Western European countries examined. But to the extent that governments in Western Europe are more likely to provide services to households that may not exist captured in household income, such every bit the National Health Service in the UK, information technology is possible that differences in the quality of life between the U.S. and Western Europe are narrower.

Recent inquiry by Charles I. Jones and Peter J. Klenow finds that economical well-being in their sample of Western European countries is similar to that of the U.Due south. when welfare estimates are broadened to include measures of leisure, mortality and inequality. For instance, they judge that while per capita income in French republic is only 67% of the level in the U.Southward., the broader measure of welfare for France is 92% of the level of welfare in the U.S.