Utah’s Middle Class Is Thriving

It’s an election year, which means the faces and personalities of various politicians are on television and computer screens more often than Santa Claus at Christmas. And there is a good chance if you see a politician on screen, it won’t be long until they mention the middle class.

The middle class is just one of those phrases that politicians love to touch on and use for their own benefit. That's because the shrinking middle class is something that is relevant to people in just about every state Except for one: Utah.

According to Brookings, the middle class is having a field day in Utah, as the top three cities, in terms of size of middle class, are all located in the Beehive State. The metro areas of Ogden-Clearfield, Provo-Orem, and Salt Lake City all have a higher share of their population in the middle class than anywhere else in the country. At 60 percent of the population, Ogden-Clearfield is at the top of the list.

Meanwhile, San Francisco and San Jose, two of the most expensive places in the country to live, are located in the bottom four in terms of middle class. Interestingly, the four least middle class cities didn’t experience a trade off with sending more people to the lower class but, instead, to the upper class. In fact, each of the bottom four least middle class cities have more than twice as many people in the upper class than the lower class.

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