Most Voters See Middle-Class Life Slipping Out of Reach as Costs Build Up
TL;DR Summary
A New York Times/Siena poll of 1,625 registered voters (Jan 12–17, 2026) finds broad economic anxiety and a widespread view that a middle-class lifestyle is out of reach, driven by rising housing, education, health care and retirement costs; while most can cover basics, majorities worry about affordability, with two-thirds saying a middle-class life is out of reach and 77% saying it’s harder to achieve than a generation ago, though sentiment is slightly improved from a year ago and older voters feel less strain.
- Voters See a Middle-Class Lifestyle as Drifting Out of Reach, Poll Finds The New York Times
- The Distribution of Household Income, 2022 Congressional Budget Office (.gov)
- How the middle class was hollowed out from 1979 to 2022, according to new federal data Fortune
- A middle-class life feels impossible for many Americans, new poll finds The Independent
- New York Times/Siena National Survey of Registered Voters: Affordability and the Economy sri.siena.edu
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