美國(guó)中產(chǎn)階級(jí)規(guī)??s小,但還是比歐洲中產(chǎn)有錢(qián)
皮尤研究中心稱(chēng),美國(guó)的中產(chǎn)階級(jí)還是比西歐人民富裕一些。 皮尤研究跟蹤了1991年到2010年間12個(gè)國(guó)家中產(chǎn)階級(jí)的變化情況,包括美國(guó)和11個(gè)西歐國(guó)家。大部分國(guó)家的中產(chǎn)階級(jí)規(guī)模都在減小,但也有少數(shù)例外。 中產(chǎn)階級(jí)的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)是,家庭年收入達(dá)到全國(guó)收入中位數(shù)的三分之二到兩倍之間。數(shù)據(jù)會(huì)根據(jù)家庭規(guī)模,通脹水平以及購(gòu)買(mǎi)力平價(jià)調(diào)整,方便研究人員比較各國(guó)和各個(gè)時(shí)間段的生活成本差異。 舉個(gè)例子,2010年年收入達(dá)到2萬(wàn)至6.1萬(wàn)美元的美國(guó)單身人士可以稱(chēng)為中產(chǎn)階級(jí)。四口之家的年收入要達(dá)到4.1萬(wàn)至12.2萬(wàn)美元左右才能稱(chēng)為中產(chǎn)。 如果看可支配收入,美國(guó)中產(chǎn)家庭收入中位數(shù)為60884美元,僅次于盧森堡。但截至2010年,美國(guó)中產(chǎn)人數(shù)占總?cè)丝诒壤齼H為59%,在報(bào)告各國(guó)里排名最后。 1991年美國(guó)中產(chǎn)人口比例還為62%,說(shuō)明這些年里出現(xiàn)了下降。 “美國(guó)中產(chǎn)人數(shù)下降反映了美國(guó)跟西歐很多國(guó)家相比,收入分配不夠平衡,”報(bào)告稱(chēng),同時(shí)指出近年美國(guó)收入不均的狀況有所惡化,主要因?yàn)槭杖脒^(guò)高或過(guò)低的人口數(shù)量相對(duì)增多。 在調(diào)查國(guó)家最窮的兩個(gè)國(guó)家——意大利和西班牙,2010年家庭年收入大約2.4萬(wàn)至7.5萬(wàn)美元能達(dá)到中產(chǎn)水平。 報(bào)告列舉的國(guó)家中,愛(ài)爾蘭、法國(guó)、英國(guó)和荷蘭出現(xiàn)兩大趨勢(shì):可支配收入增加且中產(chǎn)階級(jí)規(guī)模擴(kuò)大。其中愛(ài)爾蘭最為明顯,到2010年69%的家庭都達(dá)到中產(chǎn)標(biāo)準(zhǔn),20年前比例還只有60%。愛(ài)爾蘭中產(chǎn)階級(jí)崛起跟上世紀(jì)90年代國(guó)民經(jīng)濟(jì)大發(fā)展幾乎同步,當(dāng)時(shí)愛(ài)爾蘭被稱(chēng)為“凱爾特之虎”。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)) 譯者:Pessy 審稿:夏林 |
That said, America's middle class is still richer than most of its Western European counterparts, a new report by the Pew Research Center shows. The study documents how the middle class evolved from 1991 to 2010 in 12 countries including the U.S. and 11 nations in Western Europe. In most of those countries, the middle class has been shrinking, but there are a few exceptions. To be considered part of the middle class, households had to earn between two-thirds to double their country’s median disposable household income. The data were adjusted for household size, inflation, and purchasing power parity to allow researchers to compare cost-of-living differences across countries and time. A single person in the U.S., for example, would need to have earned between $20,000 and $61,000 to be considered middle class in 2010. For a family of four, it took household income of roughly $41,000 to $122,000 to make the cut. When it comes to disposable income, middle class households in the U.S. lived on $60,884 at the median, the second-highest level after Luxembourg. But as of 2010, only 59% of Americans were in the middle class—the lowest level of any country in the report. That’s down from 1991, when 62% of Americans were part of the middle class. “The American experience reflects a marked difference in how income is distributed in the U.S. compared with many countries in Western Europe,” the researchers noted, adding that income inequality is widest in the U.S. because a relatively high proportion of Americans earn either high incomes or low incomes. In Italy and Spain, two of the poorest countries on the list, it took between roughly $24,000 and $75,000 for a family of four to be considered middle class in 2010. Of the countries featured in the report, Ireland, France, the U.K., and the Netherlands had all benefited from two positive trends: a rise in disposable income along with an expansion of the middle class. The trends were most dramatic in Ireland, where about 69% of households were considered middle class as of 2010, up from 60% two decades earlier. Ireland's rise of the middle class coincided with its rapid economic expansion in the 1990s, a period often dubbed the “Celtic Tiger.” |