One quarter of immigrant families in the United States are middle class, with an annual household income ranging from $46,000 to $76,000. Among the 4.1 million middle-class immigrant families, 2.9% are from China.
According to statistics, one in five middle-class families nationwide is an immigrant family. Overall, immigrant families have lower incomes compared to non-immigrant families. The proportion of immigrant families earning below the middle-class income is 39.7%, higher than the 35.5% for non-immigrant families; while the proportion of immigrant families earning above the middle-class income is 35%, lower than the 40.1% for non-immigrant families.
More than half of middle-class immigrant families live in four states with high immigrant concentrations: California (26.9%), Texas (10.7%), New York (9.7%), and Florida (9.0%). One quarter of middle-class immigrants come from Mexico, accounting for 24.5%, followed by India at 3.6%, the Philippines at 3.4%, and China at 2.9%. Compared to non-immigrants, immigrants are more likely to work in technology, construction, transportation, manufacturing, and service industries, while relatively fewer are engaged in business, finance, management, education, and media sectors.
For a long time, the middle class has not had a clear definition and is often described based on household income, occupation, and education. World Bank economist Martin Ravallion states that using a median household income range of 75% to 125% has increasingly been applied in statistics. This statistic follows that calculation standard.