1. The Decline of the White Working Class and the Rise of a Mass Upper Middle Class
- Author:
- Alan Abramowitz and Ruy Teixeira
- Publication Date:
- 04-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- Dramatic shifts have taken place in the American class structure since the World War II era. Consider education levels. Incredible as it may seem today, in 1940 three-quarters of adults 25 and over were high school dropout s (or never made it as far as high school), and just 5 percent had a four-year college degree or higher. But educational credentials exploded in the postwar period. By 1960, the proportion of adults lacking a high school diploma was down to 59 percent; by 1980, it was less than a third, and by 2007, it was down to only 14 percent. Concomitantly, the proportion with a BA or higher rose steadily and reached 29 percent in 2007. Moreover, those with some college (but not a four-year degree) constituted another 25 percent of the population, making a total of 54 percent who had at least some college education 1 . Quite a change: moving from a country where the typical adult was a high school dropout (more accurately, never even reached high school) to a country where the typical adult not only has a high school diploma, but some college as well.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Demographics, and Economics
- Political Geography:
- United States