60% of Americans Now Call Themselves 'Working Class,' Up From 54% in 2024, Pew Finds

The Numbers

Since Pew Research Center's 2024 survey put working-class self-identification at 54%, that figure has climbed to 60% as of a January 2026 survey. Half of Americans with a bachelor's degree now say the term describes them well. So do half of upper-income adults, defined by Pew as those earning more than $155,600 a year.

Fifteen years ago that income put you comfortably in the upper middle class. Now half the people making it think they're working stiffs.

The Partisan Divide

Pew's data shows something the affordability headlines mostly skip past: this is partisan.

Sixty-seven percent of Republicans and Republican leaners call themselves working class, compared to 55% of Democrats, according to Pew. That 12-point gap holds up even after Pew controlled for income, occupation, education, and other economic factors.

The gap gets wider the richer people get. Among upper-income adults, it's 23 points. Among middle-income adults, 72% of Republicans identify as working class versus 63% of Democrats, a 9-point spread. Race matters too: 62% of white adults and 59% of Hispanic adults claim the label, versus 54% of Black adults and 52% of Asian adults, per Pew.

Pew doesn't offer a theory for why Republicans overwhelmingly claim a label tied to lower income. The pattern suggests "working class" has become as much a cultural and political identity as an economic one, and reporters treating it purely as an affordability metric are missing half the story.

Half of "Comfortable" Americans Still Call Themselves Working Class

Fifty percent of Americans who pay their bills in full, have several months of emergency savings, and can meet their expenses comfortably still identify as working class, Pew found. That's not a group in financial distress by any conventional measure. They just don't feel secure.

Blue-collar workers still claim the label most, at 77%, according to Pew. But 61% of people in white-collar and other occupations say it fits them too.

The Housing Math Behind the Anxiety

The backdrop is real, whatever people call themselves. The median price of a new single-family home hit $403,200 in the first quarter of 2026, according to the National Association of Home Builders, the fourth straight quarter existing-home prices have outpaced new-home prices. The typical homebuyer is now 59 years old, up from 39 just fifteen years ago, and the median first-time buyer is 40, a record, per NAHB data cited by Fortune.

Investopedia calculates the full "American Dream" package, house, two kids, a car, now runs $4.4 million over a lifetime, more than a million dollars above what most Americans will ever earn. Only 21% of young people think that dream is achievable for them, down from more than half a decade ago.

Two Explanations for the Housing Crunch

Most housing economists point to local zoning restrictions, environmental review requirements, and permitting delays as the main reason supply can't keep up with demand, driving prices higher regardless of who's buying.

The Heritage Foundation offers a different diagnosis. In a report released this month, economics director John Gibbs argues the real culprit is decades of federal mortgage intervention, not too little government help but too much. Gibbs told the Daily Signal that federal backing now covers 70% to 80% of new and outstanding mortgage credit, roughly $11.7 trillion in loans, through the FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. Homeownership rates have barely moved since the 1960s, sitting around 62% to 65% the whole time, according to Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis data cited in the report. Gibbs's conclusion: pumping cheap credit into the market inflated prices more than it expanded access. He notes Canada backs only 30% to 40% of housing debt, roughly half the U.S. rate.

Both explanations can be true at once, tight local supply and heavy federal demand subsidies pushing on the same market from different directions. Neither side in this debate disputes that prices have outrun paychecks. They just disagree on where to point the fix.

What's Actually New Here

The genuine shift since 2024 isn't that Americans feel squeezed, that's been the story for years. It's that the label "working class" has stretched to cover people six figures into their careers, and that claiming it now tracks more closely with party registration than with your actual paycheck. Pew's survey doesn't say whether that's a sign the term has lost its meaning or a sign the affordability crisis has genuinely widened who it touches. With the November midterms approaching and both parties chasing the same label for votes, expect that argument to keep going, not because either side has proven it, but because the label sells.