Middle Class America: 5 Sad Charts About The Country's Favorite Demographic

Things aren’t going very well for the middle class right now. If you don’t believe us, take a look at these charts.

Over the past decade, middle class incomes have been stagnating or declining, and the share of America’s income pie going to the middle class has been dropping, according to the Center for American Progress. At the same time, the cost of many goods and services that middle-class Americans rely on has been going up.

The result: A lost decade for the middle class during which its income fell for the first time since World War II, according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center. And many middle-class Americans are feeling the pain; of those who say they’re worse off since the recession, 51 percent say they think it will take them at least five years to recover.

Here are five sad charts about America's middle class from the Center for American Progress: