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! scope="col" | Grade
! scope="col" | Grade
! scope="col" | Chief income earner's occupation
! scope="col" | Chief income earner's occupation
!Frequency in 1968<ref name=":0" />
!Frequency in 1968 - Ipsos<ref name=":0" />
!Frequency in 2008<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Social Grade: A Classification Tool |url=https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/publication/6800-03/MediaCT_thoughtpiece_Social_Grade_July09_V3_WEB.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315075958/https://www.ipsos-mori.com/DownloadPublication/1285_MediaCT_thoughtpiece_Social_Grade_July09_V3_WEB.pdf |archive-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=2016-08-06 |publisher=Ipsos |df=dmy-all}} </ref>
!Frequency in 2008 - Ipsos<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Social Grade: A Classification Tool |url=https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/publication/6800-03/MediaCT_thoughtpiece_Social_Grade_July09_V3_WEB.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315075958/https://www.ipsos-mori.com/DownloadPublication/1285_MediaCT_thoughtpiece_Social_Grade_July09_V3_WEB.pdf |archive-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=2016-08-06 |publisher=Ipsos |df=dmy-all}} </ref>
!Frequency in 2016<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.nrs.co.uk/nrs-print/lifestyle-and-classification-data/social-grade/|title=Social Grade {{!}} National Readership Survey|website=www.nrs.co.uk|language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-19}}</ref>
!Frequency in 2016 - NRS<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.nrs.co.uk/nrs-print/lifestyle-and-classification-data/social-grade/|title=Social Grade {{!}} National Readership Survey|website=www.nrs.co.uk|language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-19}}</ref>
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! scope="row" | A
! scope="row" | A

Revision as of 15:23, 18 February 2024

The NRS social grades are a system of demographic classification used in the United Kingdom. They were originally developed by the National Readership Survey (NRS) to classify readers, but are now used by many other organisations for wider applications and have become a standard for market research.[1] They were developed in the late 1950s and refined in following years and achieved widespread usage in 20th century Britain. Their definition is now maintained by the Market Research Society.[2]

According to Ipsos, NRS social grade is not the same as social class.[3] The distinguishing feature of the NRS social grade is that it is based on occupation, rather than income, wealth or property ownership.

Grades

The classifications are based on the occupation of the head of the household.[1] The grades are often grouped into ABC1 and C2DE, representing 55% and 45% of the population in 2016, respectively.[4]

Grade Chief income earner's occupation Frequency in 1968 - Ipsos[3] Frequency in 2008 - Ipsos[3] Frequency in 2016 - NRS[4]
A Higher managerial roles, administrative or professional 12% 4% 4%
B Intermediate managerial roles, administrative or professional 23% 23%
C1 Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial roles, administrative or professional 22% 29% 28%
C2 Skilled manual workers 65% 21% 20%
D Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers 15% 15%
E State pensioners, casual and lowest grade workers, unemployed with state benefits only. 8% 10%

Only around 2% of the UK population identifies itself as upper class,[5] and this group is not separated by the classification scheme.

The grading system is also sometimes used in the Republic of Ireland with the addition of a Class F signifying Farmers and Agricultural Workers.

History

Between the original creation of the system and the present, the size of the white-collar groupings (ABC1) grew from 34% in 1968, to 55% of the population in 2016. Within this section, the professional and managerial groupings (A and B) doubled, from from only 12% in 1968 to 27% in 2016.[3][4] With pensioners included in C2DE, this means that ABC1 now represents a majority of the working population.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Wilmshurst, J. & MacKay, A., The Fundamentals of Advertising, (1999)
  2. ^ Occupation groupings: a job dictionary. Market Research Society Archived 29 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine, London, 2006.
  3. ^ a b c d "Social Grade: A Classification Tool" (PDF). Ipsos. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  4. ^ a b c "Social Grade | National Readership Survey". www.nrs.co.uk. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  5. ^ Glover, Julian (20 October 2007). "Riven by class and no social mobility - Britain in 2007". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
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