The Office for National Statistics (ONS) defines socio-economic groups as groups ‘derived from occupation, employment status and size of establishment’.
Historically the UK population has been classified into six social classes:
Non manual occupations
I Professional
II Managerial & Managers
IIIN Skilled non-manual
Manual Occupations
IIIM Skilled manual
IV Partly skilled manual
V Unskilled manual.
However a new classification system was introduced in 2001 which uses eight occupationally based classes designed to cover the whole adult population including students and those who have never worked:
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Higher managerial and professional occupations (e.g. doctors, lawyers)
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Lower managerial and professional occupations (e.g. teachers, nurses)
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Intermediate occupations (e.g. firemen, airline cabin crew)
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Small employers and own account workers (e.g. self-employed builders, shopkeepers)
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Lower supervisory and technical occupations (e.g. train drivers, foremen, supervisors)
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Semi-routine occupations (e.g. shop assistants, postmen, call centre workers)
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Routine occupations (e.g. bus drivers, waitresses, cleaners)
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Never worked and long-term unemployed
In future population level ‘vital statistics’, such as life expectancy will be published based on the new classification system.
Socio-economic group is also sometimes referred to as ‘social class’.
Office for National Statistics