The idea of a middle class household is often tied up with the traditional notions of a married couple and their children. But increasingly more people are choosing to remain unmarried. Over the past 20 years, the share of never married mid-life adults steadily increased to 29.1 percent in 2021, according to Bowling Green State University (BGSU) research.

Affording the markers of a middle class lifestyle is increasingly difficult for single-wage households. For a single individual, a middle-class income ranges from $30,000 – $90,000 per year, according to Pew Research Center. But unmarried men and women were much more likely than their married counterparts to be in the lower-income tier in 2021, according to Pew. A recent Pew study found that adults who are married or cohabitating generally have better economic outcomes than their unmarried counterparts.

Although household incomes have increased considerably since 1970, the share of adults who live in middle-class households fell from 61 percent in 1971 to 50 percent in 2021 (the last time Pew did an analysis of government data) with adults in single-earner households being among the groups that slid down the income ladder the most between 1971 and 2021.

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