Manual and lower-paid households have been in minority since turn of millennium – spelling bad news for Labour party

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The year 2000 was when Britain became more middle class than working class, according to social grading data.

The proportion of households working in non-manual professions (known as ABC1s) was 50.6% at the turn of the millennium. It has since increased further, reaching 54.2% last year.



ABC1s vs C2DEs Social grade defines occupation type of highest income earner in household:

A - Higher managerial, administrative and professional.

B - Intermediate managerial, administrative and professional

C1 - Supervisory, clerical and junior managerial, administrative and professional

C2 - Skilled manual workers

D - Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers

E - State pensioners, casual and lowest grade workers, unemployed with state benefits only

The figures compiled by Ipsos Mori from the National Readership Survey show that in 1968, two-thirds of households were in the manual or lower-paid social grade bracket known as C2DEs. But by 2015, the proportion of C2DEs had shrunk to 45.8%.

Social grading divides up households based on the job of the highest income earner.

The grades range from A, people in upper managerial and professional roles, to E, which includes state pensioners, casual workers and the unemployed receiving state benefits.

Individual grades are usually grouped into brackets that combine several tiers, with ABC1s roughly described to be middle class, while C2DEs are broadly working class.

Classing Britain: why defining social status is so difficult Read more

Most of the change since 1968 has taken place in the middle brackets. Skilled manual workers (C2s) used to be the grade encompassing the highest proportion of UK households.

In the early 1990s, this group was overtaken by junior managers and professionals (C1s). C2s have since also fallen behind intermediate roles (the Bs).

Social grades provide a useful proxy for how most developed economies have changed over the past couple of generations with traditional blue collar jobs being supplanted by those in the service sector.

Class, of course, is a pretty intangible concept and a person’s occupation will not cover all the intricate social constructions associated with it. Moreover, other measurements exist. The government, for example, uses a much more detailed breakdown called the National Statistics-Socio-Economic Classification.

Nevertheless, social grades do remain an incredibly strong predictor of a person’s lifestyle. The higher a person’s social grade the more likely they are to earn more and spend more. This makes the grades a useful tool for marketers who want to pitch a product to a certain demographic.

Another one of these areas is political analysis. For example, the largest electoral bloc in Britain are C1s. The Conservatives beat Labour among this grouping by some 15 points in both 2010 and 2015, suggesting that any future Labour success would probably need to close this particular gap.

Neil Farrer, the head of media measurement for Ipsos Connect, said: “These long term trends collected through high quality research provide a real insight into how the make-up of the country has developed over the past fifty years. Since we started collecting social grade, manufacturing in Great Britain has decreased significantly whilst there has been real growth in service related jobs ultimately leading to a burgeoning middle class. ”