Just looked at some income data from early 2025 and it's wild how much the middle class income threshold varies across the South. In North Carolina, you're looking at needing around $108k to break into upper-middle class territory, while in Mississippi it's only $85k. That's like a $23k gap for the same status level depending on where you live. I was checking the numbers and Maryland's threshold is insane - $158k to be considered upper-middle class there. Meanwhile, states like West Virginia and Arkansas are way lower, around $90k. The whole middle class income range thing really depends on your state's median household income. Like, North Carolina's median is about $70k, so the upper-middle class starting point makes sense proportionally. Texas is sitting at $118k for upper-middle class, which tracks with their higher median income overall. Honestly makes you think about how location matters just as much as raw salary when it comes to where you actually stand financially. The South's got a pretty wide spread on this stuff.