Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker
Credit: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

It was not long ago that Wisconsin was a leading state in the size of its middle class. “In 2000, only one state – Utah – had a bigger middle class than Wisconsin,” the non-profit Wisconsin Budget Project notes. “But by 2013, eight states had larger middle classes than Wisconsin, including the nearby states of Iowa and Nebraska.”

This change happened in just 13 years, and is documented in a new analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts, which shows that no state in America saw its middle class decline more than Wisconsin from 2000-2013. All 50 states and the District of Columbia saw a reduction in the percent of households that are middle class during this period, ranging from Wyoming with just a 0.3 percent decrease to Wisconsin, with a 5.6 percent decrease. Only three other states saw a decline of at least 5 percent in middle class households: Ohio (5.2 percent), North Dakota (5.1 percent) and Vermont (5.0 percent).

Pew defined middle-class […]