New Think Tank Analysis: Middle Class Americans Vanishing From Ohio Metro Areas

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Brookings published this chart based on 35 years worth of demographic data, and found that the share of families considered middle class has fallen in the state's metro communities. In Cincinnati, the drop was 9.4%, which was the smallest reported. Columbus lost 11.3% of its middle class families, Dayton and Toledo 13.3%, Cleveland 14%, Akron 14.7% and Youngstown 15.1%.

Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown -- all in NE Ohio -- posted some of the worst numbers in the nation's top 100 metro areas ranked by employment. Brookings defined middle class families as those making between 80 and 150 percent of their metro area's median income. There is more on the change in the size of the middle class here. Only Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice in Florida showed an increase in middle class families between 1970 and 2005.