Don't we all have at least a sneaking desire to know where we are on the social scale? This article is a response to five conversations I’ve had in the last two weeks about who is in which social category. Not so easy to research in fine detail, plus there are anomalies, such as being at separate levels socially, economically and in terms of influence.

But let's say, hypothetically, there is a man who is public school educated [private, in other words] then sent on to a good university, parents upper working class, slaving to send him there. Through his working life, he's variously been anywhere from B to E on the NRS system. He's been in board rooms, is a member of the MCC and at one point ran a Volvo, a Peugeot, and a classic sports. He's also been in the dole queue at Hendon - ironically driving there and back in his open top sports to cash his gyro and shop for food at M&S, Mill Hill. Where would this man be on the scale?

So to the categories. One: NRS* classifications:

A upper middle class higher managerial, administrative or professional
B middle class intermediate managerial, administrative or professional
C1 lower middle class supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional
C2 skilled working class skilled manual workers
D working class semi and unskilled manual workers
E those at lowest level of subsistence state pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers

*NRS stands for National Readership Survey (NRS Ltd, a not-for-profit company which is funded by the UK Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA), and Periodical Publishers Association (PPA).

The NRS social grade definitions have been in use for decades, ostensibly for audience profiling and targeting by the media, publishing and advertising sectors, and have become established as a generic reference series for classifying and describing social classes, especially for consumer targeting and consumer market research.

Two: The insight Value Group Ltd carried out a vast study of UK social values and change, and upon its findings established this social value scale. It draws heavily from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. This is the Insight Value Group scale, which claims to be an accurate representation of the groups that exist in the UK today.

1 self actualisers focused on people and relationships, individualistic and creative, enthusiastically exploring change, 'in a framework of non-prescriptive consideration for others'
2 innovators self-confident risk-takers, seeking new and different things, setting their own targets to achieve
3 esteem seekers acquisitive and materialistic, aspiring to what they see are symbols of success, including things and experiences
4 strivers attaching importance to image and status, as a means of enabling acceptance by their peer group, at the same time holding onto traditional values
5 contented conformers wanting to be 'normal', so follow the herd, accepting of their circumstances, they are contented and comfortable in the security of their own making
6 traditionalists averse to risk, guided by traditional behaviours and values, quiet and reserved, hanging back and blending in with the crowd
7 disconnected detached and resentful, embittered and apathetic, tending to live in the 'ever-present now'

Three: Historian Paul Fussell's nine-tier stratification of American society classifies Americans according to the following classes:
1. Top out-of-sight: the super-rich, heirs to huge fortunes and wealthy Celebrities
2. Upper Class: rich CEOs, diplomats, people who can afford full-time domestic staff, and some high salaried, prominent professionals(examples include surgeons and some highly-paid types of lawyers)
3. Upper-Middle Class: self-made well-educated professionals
4. Middle Class: office workers
5. High Prole: skilled blue-collar workers
6. Mid Prole: workers in factories and the service industry
7. Low Prole: manual laborers
8. Destitute: the homeless and disreputable (but still free)
9. Bottom out-of-sight: those incarcerated in prisons and institutions

Four: William Lloyd Warner, in his 1949 book, Social Class in America dominated U.S. sociological theory for decades. Based on social anthropology, Warner divided Americans into three classes (upper, middle, and lower), then further subdivided each of these into an "upper" and "lower" segment, with the following:

1 Upper-upper class. "Old money." People who have been born into and raised with wealth; mostly consits of old noble or prestigious families (EX: Vanderbilts, Rockerfellers, Hilton).
2 Lower-upper class. "New money." Individuals who have become rich within their own lifetimes (EX: Entrepreneurs, Movie Stars, as well as some prominent professionals).
3 Upper-middle class. High-salaried professionals (i.e., doctors, lawyers, corporate executives).
4 True-middle class. Professional with salaries and educational attainment higher than those found among lower-middle class workers (i.e.. professors, managerial office workers, architects)
5 Lower-middle class. Lower-paid professionals, but not manual laborers (i.e., police officers, non-management office workers, small business owners).
6 Upper-lower class. Blue-collar workers and manual labourers. Also known as the "working class."
7 Lower-lower class. The homeless and permanently unemployed, as well as the "working poor."

Five: The National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC) uses:
1 Higher managerial and professional occupations
2 Lower managerial and professional occupations
3 Intermediate occupations
4 Small employers and own account workers
5 Lower supervisory and technical occupations
6 Semi-routine occupations
7 Routine occupations
8 Long-term unemployed or never worked