Pew’s Economic Mobility Project focuses public attention on the ability to move up or down the economic ladder within a lifetime or from one generation to the next. By forging broad, nonpartisan agreement on the facts and drivers of mobility, the project fosters policy debate and action on how best to improve economic opportunity and ensure that the American Dream is kept alive for future generations.
Why Economic Mobility Matters
For more than two centuries, economic opportunity and upward mobility have formed the foundation of the American Dream, and they remain at the core of our nation's identity. As policy makers seek to foster equality of opportunity, it’s critical that their decisions be informed by a robust and nonpartisan fact base on economic mobility.
Factors that Help or Hinder Economic Mobility
Economic mobility is influenced by a variety of factors including education, neighborhoods, savings, and family structure. Pew also strives to understand differences in mobility by income, race, and gender.
How We Conduct Our Work
Pew conducts research on economic mobility to inform policy makers and the public debate. We look at questions such as: How do children's opportunities to achieve the American Dream compare to those of their parents? To what extent is mobility affected by wealth, gender, race, and education? How do people’s mobility prospects differ depending on where they live?
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The LATEST from the Project
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- Analysis
- Economic Mobility Project
Opinion Poll on Economic Mobility and the American Dream
In early 2009, the project commissioned a national survey and series of focus groups to provide a more accurate picture of how Americans view their own economic mobility and to better understand how their perceptions square with the reality of
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- Research & Analysis
- Economic Mobility Project
U.S. Intragenerational Economic Mobility From 1984 to 2004
This 2008 report, U.S. Intragenerational Economic Mobility from 1984 to 2004: Trends and Implications, explored how Americans have moved up and down the income ladder over the last two decades, and whether it has been more difficult for Americans to get and stay ahead in the last decade. The report focused on intragenerational mobility: how individuals change economic positions within their own lifetimes.
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- Research & Analysis
- Economic Mobility Project
Pathways to Economic Mobility
The Economic Mobility Project’s 2008 report explored some of the key factors that affect the likelihood that a person will move up or down the economic ladder over time. more
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- Report
- Economic Mobility Project
Upward Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the United States
This report introduces two new and flexible measures to examine upward relative economic mobility.
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- Report
- Economic Mobility Project
Getting Ahead or Losing Ground
This 2008 report discussed how growing income inequality and slower economic growth suggested that is was time to review the facts about opportunity and mobility in America and to attempt to answer the basic question: Is the American Dream alive and well?
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- Report
- Economic Mobility Project
How Much Does the Federal Government Spend to Promote Economic Mobility and for Whom?
This 2008 report examines exactly how much the federal government invests in the American Dream and encourages economic mobility, what form this encouragement takes and who benefits from these efforts. more
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- Media Coverage
- Economic Mobility Project
Not Your Father's Pay: Why Wages Today Are Weaker
American men in their 30s today are worse off than their fathers' generation, a reversal from just a decade ago, when sons generally were better off than their fathers, a new study finds.
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- Media Coverage
- Economic Mobility Project
Wages Through the Ages: Men Earn Less Than Fathers at Same Age
A new report finds that men in their 30s make less money than their fathers did at the same age, raising questions about deeply held notions of social mobility and the realities of the American Dream.
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- Media Coverage
- Economic Mobility Project
Study: Men in Their 30s Make Less Than Their Dads
Young men in their 30s in the United States are not doing as well financially as their fathers' generation did.
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- Report
- Economic Mobility Project
Economic Mobility in America
This 2007 report raised provocative questions about the continuing ability of all Americans to move up the economic ladder and calls into question whether the American economic meritocracy is alive and well. more
