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NRS social grade
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The NRS social grades are a system of demographic classification used in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. They were originally developed by the National Readership Survey in order to classify readers but are now used by many other organisations for wider applications and have become a standard for market research.[1]
Contents |
[edit] The grades
The classifications are based on the occupation of the head of the household.[1]
| Grade | Social class | Chief Income Earner's Occupation |
|---|---|---|
| A | upper middle class | Higher managerial, administrative or professional. |
| B | middle class | Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional |
| C1 | lower middle class | Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional |
| C2 | skilled working class | Skilled manual workers |
| D | working class | Semi and unskilled manual workers |
| E | underclass | Casual or lowest grade workers, pensioners and others who depend on the welfare state for their income |
The grades are often grouped into ABC1 and C2DE and these are taken to equate to middle class and working class respectively. Only around 2% of the UK population identifies as upper class,[2] and this group is not included in the classification scheme.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Wilmshurst, J. & MacKay, A., The Fundamentals of Advertising, (1999)
- ^ Glover, J., Riven by class and no social mobility - Britain in 2007, The Guardian, 20 October 2007
