Middle class
James Bradshaw published a pamphlet titled Scheme to prevent running Irish Wools to France in 1745. This document contains the first known attestation of the phrase middle class. The text describes a group of people existing between the nobility and the peasantry in late-feudalist society. Friedrich Engels later analyzed this category as an intermediate social stratum. He observed that while nobility owned much of the countryside, a new bourgeoisie arose around mercantile functions in cities. In France, these middle classes helped drive the French Revolution. They eventually overthrew ruling monarchists of feudal society. This transformation turned them into the new ruling class or bourgeoisie within capitalist-dominated societies. The modern usage of the term dates to a 1913 UK Registrar-General report. Statistician T. H. C. Stevenson identified the middle class as those falling between the upper-class and working-class. His definition included professionals, managers, and senior civil servants. The chief defining characteristic became control of significant human capital. These individuals remained under the dominion of the elite upper class who controlled financial and legal capital.
Vladimir Lenin stated that peasants in Russia constitute eight- or nine-tenths of the petty bourgeoisie. Marxist writers define social classes according to their relationship with the means of production. The main basis of division involves possession of means of production and role in social labor organization. Louis C. Fraina defined the middle class as independent small enterprisers owning productive property for livelihood. His perspective included propertied farmers but excluded propertyless tenant farmers. He also counted salaried managerial and supervisory employees while excluding masses of propertyless dependent salaried employees. Fraina speculated that entire categories of salaried employees might be described as a new middle class in economic terms. However, he noted this group contained most members who were actually a new proletariat. In modern developed countries, Marxist writers define petite bourgeoisie primarily as owners of small to medium-sized businesses. These business owners derive income from exploitation of wage-laborers. They are themselves exploited by big bourgeoisie like bankers and large corporate trust owners. This definition includes highly educated professional classes such as doctors, engineers, architects, lawyers, university professors, and salaried middle-management. These groups stand between ruling capitalist owners of means of production and working class whose income derives solely from hourly wages.
Barbara Ehrenreich and John Ehrenreich defined a new class in the United States in 1977. They called it the professional-managerial class. Their definition describes salaried mental workers who do not own means of production. Their major function involves reproduction of capitalist culture and capitalist class relations. This group distinguishes itself through training and education typically involving business qualifications and university degrees. Example occupations include academics, teachers, social workers, engineers, accountants, managers, nurses, and middle-level administrators. The Ehrenreichs developed their definition from studies by André Gorz and Serge Mallet regarding a new working class. Despite education and self-perception as middle class, these individuals remained part of working class because they did not own means of production. They were wage earners paid to produce capital pieces. The professional-managerial class seeks higher rank status and salaries. They tend to have incomes above average for their country. Recent global growth shows modern definitions often politically motivated. They vary according to exigencies of political purpose which they were conceived to serve. Methods used to measure wealth differ significantly across advanced industrial states versus developing countries where poverty crushes vast majority of population.
The Economist asserted in February 2009 that over half world's population now belongs to middle class. This resulted from rapid growth in emerging countries. The publication characterized the middle class as having reasonable amount of discretionary income. It defined this beginning at point where people have roughly third of income left for discretionary spending after paying basic food and shelter. Most emerging middle class consists of people who are middle class by standards of developing world but not developed one. Their money incomes do not match developed country levels though percentage of it which is discretionary does. Number of middle-class people in Asia exceeded that in West sometime around 2007 or 2008. The article pointed out that in many emerging countries, middle class has not grown incrementally but explosively. Poor countries get maximum benefit from cheap labor through international trade before pricing themselves out of world markets. That stage was reached in China between 1990 and 2005 when Chinese middle class grew from 15% to 62% of population. By 2013 some 420 million people or 31% of Chinese population qualified as middle class according to Center for Strategic and International Studies. Based on World Bank definition those having daily spending between $10 and $50 per day nearly 40% of Chinese population were considered middle class as of 2017.
A 2014 study by Standard Bank economist Simon Freemantle found total of 15.3 million households in 11 surveyed nations of Africa are middle class. These nations include Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. In South Africa a report conducted by Institute for Race Relations in 2015 estimated between 10% and 20% of South Africans are middle class based on various criteria. An earlier study estimated that in 2008 21.3% of South Africans were members of middle class. A study by EIU Canback indicates 90% of Africans fall below income of $10 a day. Proportion of Africans in $10, $20 middle class excluding South Africa rose from 4.4% to only 6.2% between 2004 and 2014. Over same period proportion of upper middle class income ($20, $50 a day) went from 1.4% to 2.3%. According to German Development Institute middle class of Sub-Saharan Africa rose from 14 million to 31 million people between 1990 and 2010. By 1970 middle class of Argentina comprised 38% of economically active population compared with 19% in Brazil and 24% in Mexico. A 1975 study on Mexico estimated that middle class in 1968 defined as families earning between 2,000 and 5,000 pesos annually comprised 36.4% of population.
Economist Thomas Piketty describes Gini coefficient as example of synthetic indices which mix very different things such as inequality with respect to labor and capital. He argues it is impossible to distinguish clearly among multiple dimensions of inequality and various mechanisms at work. In 2010 a working paper by OECD asserted that 1.8 billion people were now members of global middle class. Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2014 released October 2014 estimated one billion adults belonged to middle class with wealth anywhere between range of $10,000, $100,000. According to Pew Research Center combined 16% world's population in 2011 were upper-middle income and upper income. An April 2019 OECD report said millennial generation being pushed out of middle class throughout Western world. In Russia research from Russian Academy of Sciences in 2015 estimated around 15% of Russian population are firmly middle class while around another 25% are on periphery. The size of middle class depends on how it is defined whether by education wealth environment of upbringing social network manners or values etc. These factors are often ascribed in literature but are far from deterministically dependent.
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Common questions
When was the phrase middle class first attested in a published document?
The phrase middle class appeared for the first time in James Bradshaw's 1745 pamphlet titled Scheme to prevent running Irish Wools to France. This text described a group of people existing between the nobility and the peasantry in late-feudalist society.
Who defined the professional-managerial class in the United States in 1977?
Barbara Ehrenreich and John Ehrenreich defined the professional-managerial class in the United States in 1977. Their definition describes salaried mental workers who do not own means of production but reproduce capitalist culture and relations.
What percentage of Chinese population qualified as middle class by 2013 according to Center for Strategic and International Studies?
By 2013 some 420 million people or 31% of Chinese population qualified as middle class according to Center for Strategic and International Studies. The number grew from 15% to 62% of the population between 1990 and 2005 during that stage of development.
How many households were found to be middle class in 11 surveyed African nations in 2014?
A 2014 study by Standard Bank economist Simon Freemantle found total of 15.3 million households in 11 surveyed nations of Africa are middle class. These nations include Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
When did the OECD assert that 1.8 billion people were now members of global middle class?
In 2010 a working paper by OECD asserted that 1.8 billion people were now members of global middle class. This figure represents a significant portion of the world's population at that time.