The total population of the U.S. is 281,421,906 people (April 1, 2000) and the number of immigrants in the United States ranges from 28.4 to 31.1 million. The population has grown 13.1% since 1990. According to the Urban Institute, 36 percent of immigrants (11 million people) were legally documented, 32 percent (9.9 million) were naturalized citizens, 28 percent (8.5 million) were undocumented, and 4 percent (1.3 million) were “legal nonimmigrant” (A profile of Immigrants in the US).
The contemporary United States has no legally-recognized social classes. Elites exist, but there is no universally recognized hierarchy of people. The absence of officially-recognized classes may reflect the desire of this society to become a market-oriented meritocracy, a reflection of belief in the "American dream" as well as traditional values of hard work, entrepreneurship, and individualism (Class in the contemporary United States).
Class is usually correlated strictly to ownership of productive, financial, cultural, social and human capital. For this reason, social class is often called socioeconomic status because of this inextricable connection (Class in the contemporary United States). Social class essentially consists of three factors: wealth, power and prestige. Many sociologists, and popular sociology, use a five-class model, which includes:
The lower class in the United States consists of about 20% of the population and is deficient in all three factors. Many members of the important minority groups in the United States -- Hispanics, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans -- fall into the lower class, but the largest segment of the lower class in the United States consists of persons of European origin (Social structure of the United States). They are often impoverished and desperate individuals. Crime and hunger are daily threats for them. Lack of money defines the class, as does lack of power and prestige. Thus they are often considered under-invested as they have human potential, but little personal capital...........
