&gt; I guess the word &quot;Shrinking&quot; here is assumed to mean &quot;Gone Down&quot;<p>It means that the share of the population <i>in</i> the &quot;middle class&quot; (as defined in the work) has gone down, not that the direction that they have moved to the lower classes (from the national report [0] that preceded the locality-based one that the article is based on, the net movement has been nearly equal to the lowest and highest tier, with a slight bias to the highest tier.)<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pewsocialtrends.org&#x2F;2015&#x2F;12&#x2F;09&#x2F;the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pewsocialtrends.org&#x2F;2015&#x2F;12&#x2F;09&#x2F;the-american-middl...</a>