Here are some fascinating numbers if you need proven research to show that America's middle class is fading.

Since the 1970s, the number of people in America classified as middle-class has shrunk by 10%.

Pew Research Findings: A Closer Look

The Pew Research Center says a middle-class person has an annual income that doubles the national median household income of around $75,000, which was the study's baseline.

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Pew used several factors, including cost of living and household size, to determine the middle class. Using data from the most recent Census, Pew assigned residents an income tier of low, middle, or high.

Wisconsin's Resilience: Wausau and Oshkosh-Neenah

Pew also says the largest share of Americans considered middle-income residents live in the country's northern half.

The research shows six out of ten are in Wyoming, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

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For Wisconsin, two cities were listed among the most middle-class towns in America. Wausau, one of the two, is where "the share of residents in the upper-income tier ranged from about 18% to 20%, about on par with the share nationally."

Essentially, that means Wausau has among the lowest low-income percentages of residents in America.

The other city in Wisconsin is Oshkosh-Neenah, where 61% of residents, the same as Wausau, are considered middle class.

Rockford: A Comparison to National Averages

In case you are wondering, Pew Research shows that 56.7% of Rockford metro area residents are in the middle class compared to the 52% national average.

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The lower class percentage of people in Rockford is 27%, just one percent lower than the National average of 28%.

The Economic Impact of Middle-Class Stability

The most significant disparity between Rockford and the rest of America is the percentage of upper-class families.

Rockford has 16.4% of families classified as upper class, while the rest of America has 19%.

While Rockford didn't make the top 10 list of most middle-class cities in America, the numbers show that it is very close.

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