South Dakota, Vermont Only States With Growing Middle-Class Income

Families earning the median income in all but two states have seen their earnings shrink since 1999, according to a new report from GOBankingRates.

Using data from the Census Bureau, Zillow, and the Pew Research Center, GOBankingRates examined the change in median household income for all 50 states between 1999 and 2014. In South Dakota, the median household income of middle-class families grew 1.7 percent and stands at $77,176, and in Vermont, it is $75,540, growing 0.2 percent over the 15 years studied, CNBC reports. "South Dakota has the fifth-highest median household income for middle-class families," according to GOBankingRates, adding that it's "one of only four states where the proportion of middle income households has increased from 2010 to 2015."

To be considered middle class, you have to earn an annual household income of "two-thirds to double the national median, after incomes have been adjusted for household size," reports Pew. The most recent national household median income estimate was $59,039, according to the U.S. census. "Although the middle class is shrinking," the GOBankingRates report says, in some places "middle-income families continue to thrive."

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