average Joe

{{Further|American family structure|Divorce in the United States}}

File:Families US.svg

File:Families US Historical.png

As the United States is a highly diverse nation, it should not be surprising that there is no single prevalent household arrangement. While the "nuclear family" consisting of a married couple with their own children is often seen as the average American family, such households constitute less than a quarter of all households. Married couples without children are currently the plurality constituting 28.7% of households, compared to 24.1% for nuclear families.

Another 25.5% of households consisted of single persons residing alone. Recent trends have shown the numbers of nuclear families as well as childless married couples decrease. In 1970, 40.3% of US households consisted of nuclear families with childless couples making up 30.3% of households and 10.6% of households being arranged in "Other family types."

By 2000 the percentage of nuclear families had decreased by 40%, while the number of other family types had increased by 51%. The percentage of single households has also steadily increased. In 1970, only 17% of households consisted of singles. In 2000 that figure had increased by 50% with singles constituting 25.5% of households. The most drastic increase was among the percentage of households made up of single males, which nearly doubled from 5.6% in 1970 to 10.7% in 2000.

Today, one can no longer refer to the nuclear family as the average American household, neither can one identify the current plurality of married couples without children as "the average." Recent statistics indeed indicate that there is no average American family arrangement, but that American society is home to a wide and diverse variety of family arrangements. The one thing the data does indicate is that the average Joe most likely does not reside in a nuclear 4-person family.

{{quote|The nuclear family ... is the idealized version of what most people think of when they think of "family {{nbsp}}..." The old definition of what a family is ... the nuclear family- no longer seems adequate to cover the wide diversity of household arrangements we see today, according to many social scientists (Edwards 1991; Stacey 1996). Thus has arisen the term postmodern family, which is meant to describe the great variability in family forms, including single-parent families and child-free couples.|Brian K. Williams, Stacey C. Sawyer, Carl M. Wahlstrom, Marriages, Families & Intimate Relationships, 2005.}}

A statement that can be made, however, is that most Americans will marry at least once in their lifetime with the first marriage most commonly ending in divorce. Today a little over half (52.3%) of US household include a married couple, showing a significant decrease since 1970 when 70.6% of households included a married couple. Current trends indicate that people in the US are marrying later and less often with higher divorce rates.

Despite the declining prevalence of marriage, more than three-quarters of Americans will marry at least once in their lifetime. The average age for marriage for a male was 26.8 and 25.1 for a female. Americans are also likely to remarry after their first divorce. In 1990, 40% of all marriages were remarriages. All together one can conclude that while there is no prevalent average household arrangement, most Americans (the average Joe) will get married and divorced once with a considerable number of Americans remarrying at least once.

{{main|Personal income in the United States|Household income in the United States}}

Income in the United States is most commonly measured either by individual or household. By only including those above age 25, the vast majority of students and all working adolescents are excluded. The average American, as discussed in the educational attainment section, is a high school graduate who attended but did not graduate from college. From the below table in 2017, the median personal income of such Americans was $37,968, and among those who worked full-time their median personal income was $43,377.

Source: US Census Bureau, 2021{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/cps-hinc/hinc-05.html|title=HINC-05. Percent Distribution of Households, by Selected Characteristics Within Income Quintile and Top 5 Percent|access-date=2023-07-27}}

{{Income in the US}}

{{main|Educational attainment in the United States}}

File:Educational Attainment in the United States 2009.png

The US adult population seems almost equally divided between those who have and those who don't have a college degree, including an Associate degree. While only a minority of Americans, 35%, have graduated from college with a Bachelor's degree or more, a majority, 61%, of Americans had "some college" education. Also, 45% had an associate degree or more, with only roughly 13.7% having a graduate degree. On the other end of the strata, 10% of adults did not graduate from high school.{{cite web|url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0908670.html|title=US Census Bureau, 2005, data published on Infoplease.com|access-date=2007-01-12| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070103230438/http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0908670.html| archive-date= 3 January 2007 | url-status= live}}

It is fair to assume that the average Joe/Jane is not a college graduate, but is a high school graduate. However, it is difficult to determine how much college education the average American has, as the population is split between those who graduated, attended but did not graduate, and did not attend college. Over the past half century the educational attainment of the US population has significantly increased.{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/p20-550.pdf|title=US Census Bureau report on educational attainment in the United States, 2003|access-date=2006-07-31}} In 2019, the median personal income for American adults age 25+ was $46,985 overall, specifically $52,297 for males and $40,294 for females.

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|caption=Median household income, age 25+{{cite web |title=US Census table H-14 |url=https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-income-households.html |access-date=2020-06-07}}

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{{main|Social class in the United States|American middle class}}

File:Middle class shrinkage.png

In terms of social class the average American could be referred to as being both a member of the middle or working class.{{cite book | last = Vanneman | first = Reeve |author2=Lynn Weber Cannon | year = 1988 | title = The American Perception of Class

|publisher = Temple University Press | location = New York, NY | isbn = 0-87722-593-1 }}{{cite book | last = Ehrenreich | first = Barbara | year = 1989 | title = Fear of Falling, The Inner Life of the Middle Class | publisher = Harper Collins | location = New York, NY | isbn = 0-06-097333-1 | url = https://archive.org/details/fearoffallinginn00ehre }} The discrepancy is largely the result of differing class models and definitions of what constitutes a member of the middle class. Currently the vast majority of Americans self-identify as middle class, yet some experts in the field such as Michael Zweig of Stony Brook University or Dennis Gilbert of Cornell University have brought forth different theories. The majority of American adults are neither professionals nor managers and lack college degrees.

{{quote|Everyone wants to believe they are middle class. For people on the bottom and the top of the wage scale the phrase connotes a certain Regular Joe cachet. But this eagerness to be part of the group has led the definition to be stretched like a bungee cord.|Dante Chinni, The Christian Science Monitor}}

Occupational autonomy is a key factor in regards to class positions.{{cite book | last = Eichar | first = Douglas | year = 1989 | title = Occupation and Class Consciousness in America | publisher = Greenwood Press | location = Westport, Connecticut | isbn = 0-313-26111-3 | url = https://archive.org/details/occupationclassc00eich }} Professionals and managers who are exclusively labeled as middle class, and often as upper middle class, conceptualize, create and consult in their jobs. Due to their great expertise they enjoy a high degree of autonomy in the workplace.

The American economy, however, does not require a labor force consisting solely of professionals. Instead it requires a greatly diverse and specialized labor force. Thus the majority of Americans complete assigned tasks with considerably less autonomy and creative freedom than professionals, leading to theory that they may better be described as being members of the working class.

{{Social class in the US}}

{{see also|Labor force in the United States}}

The plurality of Americans (41%) today are white-collar salaried employees who work in varied environments, including offices and at home. Roughly 25% of Americans were employed in the traditional blue-collar fields that involve physical labor. And 34% of Americans are employed in the service industry, including about one-third in the healthcare industry (11% of the total).{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/11/04/new-republican-party-working-class-coalition-00122822|title=The Emerging Working-Class Republican Majority|first=Patrick|last=Ruffini|date=November 4, 2023|website=POLITICO}}

Educational attainment varied greatly depending on occupational field with 68% of those in the professional and professional support fields having a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to only 31.6% of those employed in sales and 11.6% of those in the service sector. The average American does not have a bachelor's degree, and is most likely employed in the tertiary sector of the economy, encompassing both non-professional white-collar and pink-collar work. Altogether the American economy and labor force have changed greatly since the middle of the 20th century, with most workers today no longer being employed in blue-collar occupations.

File:US Homeownership by race 2016.png

{{main|Homeownership in the United States}}

The majority of American households are "homeowners" but likely owe on a mortgage, as the term also includes households that owe on a mortgage. According to ATTOM Data Research, only "34 percent of all American homeowners have 100 percent equity in their properties — they've either paid off their entire mortgage debt or they never had a mortgage".{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/american-homeowners-are-making-headway-on-mortgage-debt-report-finds/2017/08/22/3b8fe550-868f-11e7-a50f-e0d4e6ec070a_story.html|title=American homeowners are making headway on mortgage debt, report finds|date=23 August 2017|website=WashingtonPost.com|access-date=7 July 2019}}

Homeownership is the primary asset most Americans use to generate wealth. For majority of U.S. homeowners, their home equity represents 50-70% of their net wealth.{{cite web | url=https://www.brookings.edu/articles/rethinking-homeownership-incentives-to-improve-household-financial-security-and-shrink-the-racial-wealth-gap/ | title=Rethinking homeownership incentives to improve household financial security and shrink the racial wealth gap }} In first quarter 2023, the average American with an active mortgage had a home equity close to US$275,000.{{cite web | url=https://www.bankrate.com/home-equity/homeowner-equity-data-and-statistics/#key-terms | title=Homeowner Equity Data and Statistics | date=5 March 2024 }}

According to US Department of Commerce data in 2005, 67% of housing units in the United States were owner occupied, had three or fewer bedrooms with one or less occupant per room (including kitchen, dining room, living room, etc.) and were mortgaged.{{cite web|url=http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_DP4&-ds_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_&-_lang=en&-_sse=on|title=US Census Bureau, Housing Characteristics, 2005|access-date=2007-01-14|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200211182306/http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_DP4&-ds_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_&-_lang=en&-_sse=on|archive-date=11 February 2020|url-status=dead}} The overwhelming majority, 85%, of all housing units had three or fewer bedrooms. The plurality of housing units, 40%, had three bedrooms. The majority, 67%, of housing units were mortgaged with 52% of households spending 25% or less of their annual income on mortgage payments.

The median value of a housing unit in the US was $167,500 in 2005 with the median mortgage payment being $1,295. The average size of a household was 2.5 persons with almost all housing units, 97%, having 1 or fewer occupants per room. However, the term "room" does not exclusively refer to bedrooms, but includes the kitchen, dining room, family room, bathrooms and any other rooms a house might have. While 85% of American homes had 3 or fewer bedrooms, the median number of total rooms per housing units was 5.3 in 2005. These statistics suggest that the average Americans reside in their own home, and pay roughly $1,000 per month in mortgage payments for a three or fewer bedroom house with no more than one occupant per room.

US Census Bureau data from 2002 identified housing characteristics for owner-occupied units inhabited by households with average incomes, ranging from $40,000 to $60,000. The median square footage for homes occupied by middle-income households was 1,700 with 52% of such homes having two or more bathrooms. The median value of these homes was $112,000 with the median year of construction being 1970. Middle-income households tended to spend roughly 18% of their monthly income on housing. Thus it is likely that many average Americans reside in {{convert|1700|sqft|m2|adj=on}} homes, priced slightly above $100,000 with two or more bathrooms that were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s.{{cite book | last = Beeghley | first = Leonard |author2= Joseph Hickey | year = 2004 | title = The Structure of Social Stratification in the United States | publisher = Pearson | location = New York, New York| isbn = 0-205-37558-8}} However, the taken income is slightly above average.

• Alan Smithee
• Commoner
• Culture of the United States
• Demographics of the United States
• Joe Shmoe
• Joe's Diner (placeholder name)
• John Doe
• John Q. Public
• Homeownership in the United States
• Keeping up with the Joneses
• List of terms related to an average person
• Social structure of the United States

;International

• Aam Aadmi (India)
• Jan Kowalski (Poland)
• Joe Bloggs and man on the Clapham Omnibus (United Kingdom)
• Man on the Bondi tram (Australia)
• Ola Nordmann and Peder Ås (Norway)
• Svensson (Sweden)

{{reflist|30em}}

{{wiktionary|Joe Average}}

{{Demographics of the United States}}

{{United States topics}}

Category:American English idioms

Category:Anonymity pseudonyms

Category:Demographics of the United States

Category:Income in the United States

Category:Placeholder names

Category:Social concepts

Category:Society of the United States