Well most arbitrary measures seem to consider the objective measures for low income and high income and assume the band that falls outside both measures to be middle income. As the standard of living varies across countries quite tremendously, there is no common income measurement I am aware of. You really have to establish that on a case by case basis.

Natasha, thank you for your answer! Yes, I know that some people consider middle-class status individuals whose income lies b/w 75% and 125% of the median income; others are using larger intervals but I was wondering which interval is most frequently used. Thanks!

Instead of income, very important measure is lifestyle, which, according to the latest perspectives in this sociological field, is considered as one of the most important and essential indicators of social structuring in post-modern societies.

Valentina: "lifestyle" cannot itself be a measure, thus it would have to be defined, and then operationalized, i.e. use measurable indicators from that definition. Then, it too will become subjective, discussed and possible controversial For example, what defines lifestyle-- what one reads, how one dresses, go to the opera instead of baseball games, what their house or car looks like is worth; what they eat, thus health status, etc etc etc.

Mary, I think it is clear that "lifestyle" should be defined and then operationalized into indicators. This is one of the main goals of the theoretical frame, sure

Dear All,

Thank you for your input! I do know that in studying (middle) classes, one must take into account indicators such as life style (although this needs to be further operationalized as Mary-Helen pointed out), job type, self-identification, income, wealth, and so on. What I was trying to get at was the imperfect "objective" measure of middle-class status based on income. As mentioned previously, some claim that middle class individuals have incomes that lie b/w 75% and 125% of the median income; other are using other intervals based on the median (or average, sometimes) net income. I am well aware of the limitations of using income to define (middle) class but I was only trying to identify the most common used measure of middle class based on income, which -- again -- is insufficient to define classes.

JACEK: Thanks for your suggestion! Although I stayed for one year in Poland in the 1990s, I do not read or understand Polish language. Do you have an English abstract of your paper? I'd love to read it! Thanks!

Dear Catalin,

There is a paper by Aktinson and Brandolini which discusses the issues you are asking about, see the link below:

http://www.ecineq.org/milano/wp/ecineq2011-217.pdf

Marton Medgyesi: Thank you very much for the link to the Working Paper on the Middle Class by Steven Pressman. I found it quite useful.

The middle class is a concept in which politics, economics and society participate. Each of them tries to present this concept according to a specific angle, but in sociology, this class is regarded as "the class that enjoys an appropriate share of income and education. It includes employees, skilled workers, "The middle class relies on indicators that are particularly relevant to the skills, experience or qualifications that affect the quality and level of work that can be done by members of this class. This idea is adopted by the social scientist (Mac) S. Weber).

The indicators of the middle class are many and varied according to the nature of society, especially in the social aspect and the economic system. In many studies and researches of the Arab societies, it is clear that there are four main factors that work in class determination: land ownership, capital ownership, proportionality, independence of positions and positions of power.

The social nature of the middle class is complex. It is a class that must always welcome newcomers, especially those who ascend to it, but the peak of excellence and success of the middle class when the social movement is from the bottom up. And contribute to support their numbers through development and reform projects and increase opportunities for education and social welfare.

The middle class is the true balance of society because the large dropout from both up and down is considered a problem. The rise to the upper classes of specific categories through rapid enrichment, which is not based on economic grounds, is a manifestation of a legal imbalance and a troubled economic system.

There is a reverse correlation that says that with every rapid rise from this class to the top through rapid enrichment it happens on the other side the fall of the number of individuals to the poor class is ten times the ascenders in a precise sense with each individual ascends to the upper layer of the middle class falls about ten People who have lost this sudden upsurge in capital or employment or education or training opportunities are a good example of the collapse of famous stocks years ago.

It must be recognized that the middle class in society may be subjected to a great shock, especially since the economic nature of our society is based on the system of economic opportunities and development trends. We are a society that depends entirely on the income it gives to society. This income is linked to an international economic system in which political dimensions play a large role. Determine the size and amount of the share of society in it.

We are in a very different society in terms of reading it at the level of classes. Our classes are divided by different standards than others. The upper class has the only criterion. The most important is the capital and the size of the wealth. The members of this class may be uneducated or unskilled. It can happen to some individuals in society as a result of one economic process that may suddenly escalate. There are many examples of a sudden rise. This is not an economic imbalance but a possible response to the economic nature of society.

In the middle class, the standard of capital size weakens and the reason is that this class is viewed according to the educational level and administrative classification in the government jobs. Therefore, many people, including some officials, are confused when they believe that the middle class is the fixed-income class.

Many believe that capital is a concept linked to the richness of wealth, so the poor class in the society is classified as the impoverished class, which finds nothing so many officials build their statements about this class that we do not have a poor class and thus lack the highest perception of classes in society.

In the nature of our society, poverty has a definition that must be different from that of the middle class. The poor class in our society is equal to the requirements of the middle class in other societies. The talk about increasing the ambition of the middle class is true and positive and should not be viewed as an unjustified ambition for this class. Scientific evidence and a proven proof that the economy in society has the ability to give this class more advantages.

The poor class in society is still able to pump more people into the middle class. The reason is that educational and skill levels are available to the classes of this class. In other words, education in all its stages, scholarship programs and training programs have enabled this class to move up.

The important question is, where is the problem then? If we have a middle class that can expand and a poor layer can be reduced according to the conditions of development and development ..? The problem lies in the indicators of our classes. We do not have published economic standards that can be referred to by the individual to apply to himself to know in which class he is and what he must do to remain in his class and maintain his economic level.

Valentina Zlatanova · 9.17 · Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Mary, I think it is clear that "lifestyle" should be defined and then operationalized into indicators. This is one of the main goals of the theoretical frame, sure

What are the most frequently used measures to determine middle-class status based on income?. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_are_the_most_frequently_used_measures_to_determine_middle-class_status_based_on_income [accessed Apr 13, 2017].

Yes, but in order for anyone to come up with measure/indicators, we must know how you are defining it operationally, not the other way around.

Catalin Augustin Stoica  I have been reading about class and economy in Latin American countries and in France.  From this, I suggest that indicators are far from universal, thus, use the ones that apply to the population under study and in the context of where they are. For instances, in some places, formal education (college and beyond, sometimes even HS) does not correlate closely with income, as it does in the US. People can have very high incomes with low levels of education. Conversely, individuals with high education attainment are not wealthy and have relatively lower incomes (such as what in the US would be considered income of working-class or blue collar jobs, some manual labor).