Released: August 22, 2012 The Lost Decade of the Middle Class
Fewer, Poorer, Gloomier Chapter 6: Census Trends for Income and
Demography This chapter uses trend data from the U.S. Census
Bureau to analyze changes during the modern era in the incomes
of Americans at all levels of the economic spectrum. In the half
century following World War II, American families could always
count on rising prosperity. Each decade ended with family
incomes higher than what they were at the start. That is no
longer the case. Years of slow growth punctuated by two
recessions left American families with lesser incomes and less
wealth in 2010 than in 2000. This “lost decade”15 is unique in
the modern era. It is the only decade in which real incomes fell
for all families combined as well as for families in every
economic stratum examined. The mean income of families overall
decreased at an average annual rate of 0.6% in the “lost decade”
(after adjusting for inflation).16 The mean income of families
in the lowest income quintile f