Social Class

Class definitions

In Britain, for statistical purposes, class has been defined using the Registrar General's scale of Social Class and Socio-economic groups.

This consisted of six major classes, ranging from 'Professionals' in class one to 'Unskilled' and 'Other' in classes 5 and 6. Class 3 was sub-divided into manual and non manual skills.

It has been argued that the level of skill at work may not be the best way of measuring access to social resources. The Registrar General's scale contained absurdities like equating small tenant farmers and major land owners.

Some of these arguments have been addressed by the introduction of the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC). This is based on the concepts of employment relations and conditions rather than skill.

What class would you say you were in?