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Few Consider Themselves Wealthy, Even Among Highest Earners

Republican and Democratic candidates alike are making their last-minute attempts at earning the middle class vote. But while Americans may not agree what income qualifies as middle class, most are pretty sure they fall into that category. Even among the country’s highest earners, only one-in-five consider themselves wealthy.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that most American Adults (58%) still consider themselves middle class, little changed from previous surveys. Another 22% consider themselves upper middle class, unchanged from December, but up from 16% in April 2016. Just four percent (4%) think they are wealthy, while 13% say they’re poor, a number that has been on the decline over the past two years. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

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The survey of 1,000 American Adults was conducted on October 21-22, 2018 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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