Which Americans see themselves as working class?

Photos, left to right: Al Drago, Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo, Katina Zentz, Jeffrey Greenberg, Paul Bersebach and Raquel Natalicchio all via Getty Images. Photo illustration by Pew Research Center.

Most Americans think of themselves as “working class” today: Overall, 60% of U.S. adults say the term describes them well. And the identity is widely adopted by people across all income and educational groups – including half of both Americans who have a bachelor’s degree and those who are upper income.

Group	Extremely well	Very well	NET Extremely/very well	grouping
Total	28	32	60	total
White	29	32	62	race
Hispanic	28	32	59	race
Black	28	26	54	race
Asian*	19	33	52	race
Ages 18-49	29	31	59	age
50+	28	33	61	age
College grad+	20	30	50	edu
No college degree	33	33	66	edu
				income
Upper income	22	27	50	income
Middle income	33	35	67	income
Lower income	26	31	57	income
Rep/Lean Rep	33	33	67	party
Dem/Lean Dem	25	30	55	party

Working-class identification does vary by education and income: It is highest among Americans without a four-year degree and those who are middle income. But an analysis of data from a Pew Research Center survey conducted earlier this year finds that seeing oneself as working class also has a heavy political tinge and differs by race and ethnicity.

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to identify as working class – even after taking economics, occupation, education and other factors into account. Overall, 67% of Republicans and Republican leaners say “working class” describes them well, as do 55% of Democrats. And wide partisan gaps are evident across many demographic and economic groups.

Working-class identification differs by race and ethnicity. In particular, White adults are more likely than Black adults to identify as working class. About six-in-ten White (62%) and Hispanic adults (59%) overall view themselves as working class, as do roughly half of Black (54%) and Asian adults (52%).

Who identifies as working class? Many factors matter

Americans without a college degree and those who are middle income are most likely to identify as working class. But large shares of higher-income and more-educated adults also say they are part of the working class:

66% of adults without bachelor’s degrees say “working class” describes them extremely or very well – but half of those with degrees (50%) say this, too.
67% of middle-income Americans say “working class” describes them well – but so do plenty of lower- (57%) and upper-income adults (50%).

The many meanings of ‘working class’

While the working class is central to many social and political discussions in America today, those discussions often use the term in different ways – sometimes referring to very different groups of people. Is the working class made up of adults who:

The term’s ambiguity has gotten attention in its own right in recent months. At the same time, some political figures – particularly on the left – have been pressed to explain who they are including when they invoke the term.

Looking at Americans’ self-reported financial stressors, rather than income, those with lower financial stress are less likely than others to describe themselves as working class.

Even so, 50% of Americans who consistently pay their bills in full, have several months of emergency savings and report being able to meet their expenses comfortably say they consider themselves to be working class.

And while those working in blue-collar occupations are particularly likely to identify as working class (77%), so do a majority of those working in other occupations (61%).

How we defined ‘blue-collar’

For the purposes of this analysis, we defined “blue-collar workers” as those who do manual or physical labor in their jobs and work in one of five specific industrial sectors: manufacturing, mining and construction; agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting; retail and trade; hospitality and service; and transportation. The data on occupation and physical labor was collected in an October 2024 Pew Research Center American Trends Panel survey and linked to the January 2026 survey analyzed here. For more details on the blue-collar analysis and the 2024 survey, read our 2025 analysis.

Working-class identification has ticked up from a few years ago: In 2024, 54% of Americans said the term described them well, and 60% do so today. The shift is seen across many demographic, socioeconomic and political groups.

Partisanship is associated with working-class identification

Majorities of Republicans across every educational, economic and occupational groups see themselves as working class. Democrats are generally less likely to do so – especially among higher-income and financially comfortable adults.

Education and party

While college graduates are less likely to identify as working class than those without a degree, the partisan gap is nearly identical among both those with and without a bachelor’s degree:

72% of Republicans without a bachelor’s degree describe themselves as working class, compared with 61% of Democrats without a degree – an 11 percentage point gap.
There is a 12-point gap among those with a four-year degree: 56% of Republican college grads say they’re working class vs. 44% of Democratic college grads.

Group	Rep/Lean Rep	Dem/Lean Dem	Total	grouping
Total	67	55	60	total
College grad+	56	44	50	edu
No college degree	72	61	66	edu
Upper income	61	38	50	income
Middle income	72	63	67	income
Lower income	62	52	57	income
Low	60	39	50	financial stress
Medium	71	60	65	financial stress
High	67	58	61	financial stress
Blue-collar workers	82	72	77	type of work
All other workers	68	55	61	type of work

Income and party

Among both low- and middle-income adults, Republicans are about 10 points more likely than Democrats to identify as working class. For instance, 72% of middle-income Republicans identify as working class, compared with 63% of Democrats.

The partisan gap is much wider – 23 points – among upper-income adults, reflecting that upper-income Democrats are much less likely than middle- or lower-income Democrats to see themselves as working class, while upper-income Republicans are about as likely as lower-income Republicans to say “working class” describes them well.

Financial stress and party

As with income, the partisan gap is widest among those who are the most financially comfortable: 60% of Republicans with few financial stresses say “working class” describes them well, compared with 39% of Democrats who are similarly financially comfortable.

In contrast, there is a relatively modest partisan gap among those under substantial financial stress: 67% of Republicans and 58% of Democrats who have substantial financial strain see themselves as working class.

Type of work and party

The partisan gap in self-identification as working class is also evident among both blue-collar workers and workers in other fields. Drawing upon occupational data collected in a 2024 Pew Research Center survey, we find:

82% of Republicans with blue-collar jobs identify as working class, compared with 72% of Democrats in these types of jobs.
Among all other workers, 68% of Republicans and 55% of Democrats identify with the term.

How identification as working class differs across racial and ethnic groups

Group	College grad+	No college degree	Dem/Lean Dem	Rep/Lean Rep	Total	grouping
Total	50	66	55	67	60	total
White	48	71	54	69	62	race
Hispanic	61	59	58	64	59	race
Black	58	53	54	53	54	race
Asian*	45	59	49	55	52	race

Overall, 62% of White adults, 59% of Hispanic adults, 54% of Black adults and 52% of Asian adults identify as working class.

There are wide differences within educational and partisan groups.

Education

About seven-in-ten White adults without a college degree (71%) identify as working class, compared with smaller shares of Hispanic (59%), Asian (59%) and Black adults without bachelor’s degrees (53%).

In contrast, about six-in-ten Hispanic (61%) and Black adults with college degrees (58%) describe themselves as working class. Smaller shares of White (48%) and Asian college graduates (45%) also say this.

As a result, while there are wide differences between the share of college grads and non-college grads who say they are working class among White and Asian Americans, there is not a substantial educational gap in this identification among Hispanic and Black Americans.

Partisanship

The partisan gap in identification as working class is also particularly pronounced among White adults: 69% of White Republicans and 54% of White Democrats say this description applies to them. That is a larger partisan gap than among Black adults.

About this research

This Pew Research Center data essay examines which Americans do and do not refer to themselves as working class. It focuses on demographic and attitudinal factors, like partisan identification, educational attainment, income, and race and ethnicity.

Why did we do this?

Pew Research Center conducts research to help the public, media and decision-makers understand important topics, like the social and political discussions over definitions of the American working class. We have studied Americans’ views of politics and major policy issues for decades, including the economy and work.

Learn more about Pew Research Center.

How did we do this?

The data for the question on working-class identification comes from a Center survey of 8,512 U.S. adults conducted Jan. 20-26, 2026. Everyone who took this survey is part of the Center’s American Trends Panel. The survey reflects the views of all U.S. adults.

Here are the January survey questions we used for this analysis, the detailed responses and the survey methodology.

Additional analysis in this piece links the respondents from the January survey to two other surveys – one conducted in conducted Nov. 17-30, 2025 (the questions making up the financial stress scale) and one conducted Oct. 7-13, 2024, (the questions on occupation)

Here are the November 2025 survey questions, along with responses and the survey methodology.

Here are the October 2024 survey questions, along with responses and the survey methodology.

More about the data

This analysis explores how various demographic and economic factors are related to working-class identification. The survey that asked about working-class identification was conducted in January 2026.

Some variables in the analysis are a combination of multiple questions.

Financial stress scale

The financial stress scale combines the results from three questions asked in the November 2025 survey. (Read “About this research” for more details on the surveys). Each question was standardized and converted to z-scores before combining to ensure equal weighting across items regardless of their original response scales. The three standardized items were summed to create the final scale. In instances where a respondent did not respond to a particular question, their result was imputed as the midpoint of each item’s range before standardization.

The full question wording for each item is below:

1. Which best describes your ability to pay all of your bills in full in a typical month?

1=I can typically pay all of my bills in full
2=I cannot pay some bills or can only make a partial payment on some of them
99=Don’t know/Refused
(recoded 0=I can typically pay all of my bills in full, 1=I cannot pay some bills or can only make a partial payment on some of them, 0.5=Don’t know/Refused)

2. Do you have emergency or rainy day funds that would cover your expenses for 3 months in case of sickness, job loss, economic downturn, or other emergencies?

1=Yes
2=No
99=Don’t know/Refused
(recoded 0=yes, 1=no, 0.5=Don’t know/Refused)

3. How would you describe your household’s financial situation? Do you…

1=Live comfortably
2=Meet your basic expenses with a little left over for extras
3=Just meet your basic expenses
4=Not even have enough to meet basic expenses
99=Don’t know/Refused
(recoded so scores 1-4 were retained; 4=more hardship, 1=less hardship, 2.5=Don’t know/Refused)

After creating a standardized scale, cut points were chosen to fall in natural valleys between the six major discrete value clusters in the distribution. Categories were further reduced to account for the distribution of the scale.

Lower stress scores indicate a person can pay all bills in full, has emergency savings and lives comfortably. Higher stress scores indicate a person cannot pay all their bills in full, has no emergency savings and does not have enough to meet basic expenses. Medium stress scores indicate a person may not have emergency savings but can pay bills in full – among other response combinations.

Blue-collar workers

Data about blue-collar workers was collected in an October 2024 Pew Research Center American Trends Panel survey and linked to the January 2026 survey analyzed here.

The analyses in this data essay are based on blue-collar workers who completed both the October 2024 and January 2026 surveys, and are weighted following the weighting procedure described here.

For more details on the blue-collar analysis and the 2024 survey, read the 2025 report.

Multivariate analysis of working-class identification

In addition to looking at the overall percentages within demographic and political groups who identify as working class, we conducted a multivariate analysis – a logistic regression – to see how a number of variables are related to working class identification once they are all taken into account together. A logistic regression is a statistical method often used when working with binary dependent variables. In this case, those who said working class described them extremely or very well were coded as 1, while all other responses were coded as 0. We also ran the models as an ordinary least squares regression, with the full five-point scale of the question. Results were consistent across model specifications.

We looked at how income, partisan identification, self-identified ideology, gender, financial stress, race and ethnicity, education and age are related to working-class identification.

In addition, we ran a separate model for income, partisan identification, ideology, gender, race and ethnicity, education, age and occupation-type.

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Which Americans see themselves as working class?