Factors influencing voting behaviourWhat is social class?

Social class is a measure of a person’s status or position within society. Social class usually takes account of an individual’s income, wealth, occupation, education, etc, although different classifications use different criteria.

In the past society was classified as follows:

• Social Class A – senior professional
• Social Class B – lower professional
• Social Class C1 – skilled
• Social Class C2 – semi-skilled
• Social Class D/E – low-skilled/unemployed

Today, social classification has been redefined to reflect changes in employment and earnings. One clearer measure of social class would be the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification.

National Statistics Socio-economic Classification

Professional/managerial: –

• higher managerial and professional occupations } A/B
• lower managerial and professional occupations

Intermediate: –

• intermediate occupations (clerical, sales, service)
• small employers and own account workers } C
• lower supervisory and technical occupations

Routine/unemployed: –

• semi-routine occupations
• routine occupations } D/E
• long term unemployed/never worked