Socio-economic mobility in the United States

Socio-economic mobility in the United States refers to the movement of Americans from one social class or economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marrying. This "vertical" mobility can be the change in socioeconomic status between parents and children ("inter-generational"); or over the course of a lifetime ("intra-generational"). It typically refers to "relative mobility", the chance that an American's income/status will rise or fall compared to others in another income/status group but can also be "absolute", whether (and by how much) living standards in America have increased.

Belief in strong social and economic mobility, that Americans rise from humble origins to riches, has been called a "civil religion", "the bedrock upon which the American story has been anchored", and part of the American identity (the American Dream), celebrated in the lives of famous Americans such as Benjamin Franklin and Henry Ford, and in popular culture (from the books of Horatio Alger and Norman Vincent Peale to the song "Movin' on Up"). Opinion polls show that this belief has been both stronger in the US than in years past, and stronger than in other developed countries.

However, in recent years several large studies have found that vertical intergenerational mobility is lower, not higher, in the US than in comparable countries. Studies differ on whether social and economic mobility has gotten worse in recent years. A 2013 Brookings Institution study found income inequality was becoming more permanent, sharply reducing social mobility.

A large academic study released in 2014 found income mobility has not changed appreciably in the last 20 years.

The American Dream Report, a study of the Economic Mobility Project, found that Americans surveyed were more likely than citizens of other countries to agree with statements like

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