Local government district-level Social Class estimates from the 1931 Census

Table ID:

SOC_1931_EW     (1253019)

Contents:

Local government district-level Social Class estimates from the 1931 Census

Approx. number of rows:

1,800

Table type:

Derived

Documentation Author:

Humphrey Southall

Geography:

Reporting units are identified by:
   Administrative County
   Local Government District
   Local Government District Type

Chronology:

The data are for the single year 1931.

Sources:

1. These data are derived from the 1931 occupational statistics held in the 'occ_1931_lg_t' and 'occ_1931_sm_m' tables, using information from the Registrar General's Decennial Supplement, Part IIA, Occupational Mortality, table 1, which lists the individual 'occupation units' comprising each class.
2. NB the only 1931 social class data published at the time, in the Registrar General's Decennial Supplement are held here in 'soc_1931_ew_reg'.

---

Notes:

1. For comparability with later data, and to simplify what are very complex calculations, figures here are limited to males, although the source data also cover women. They are further limited to males aged 14 and over, because this is the group the occupational data cover. NB the data in 'soc_1931_ew_reg' cover males aged 16 and over and are therefore not directly comparable.
2. Limitations to the available data mean that the figures here for large towns (over 50,000 population) are precise computations while those for smaller towns and rural districts are good estimates. See the value of the 'source' column to distinguish computations from estimates.
3. The method for estimating numbers in each social class in small towns and rural districts is as follows:
   • Re-cast the data for districts in 'occ_1931_sm_m' into the most detailed mutually exclusive groups possible, i.e. re-compute numbers in certain orders to exclude those more detailed categories which are separately tabulated.
   • Using the more detailed data available for counties, compute precise numbers:
     • in each class
     • in each of the above mutually exclusive groups
     • excluding from these county totals all persons in the towns that are separately tabulated.
   • Use the county-level proportions of each class in each group to estimate the numbers in each class within the group data for the particular district.
   • Sum the number in each class in each group across all groups to obtain class totals for each district.
4. The estimation procedure has to assume that districts follow average patterns over their county, and must therefore to some extent tend to suppress values. However, note firstly that by using ALL the available data in the occupational table for small towns and rural districts it is able to draw on 53 occupational groups rather than just the 32 occupational orders. Secondly, some of these additional groups seem to have been chosen to assist in identifying status groups. In particular, the following groups from the occupational table are entirely in social class 5 and include 62% nationally of all those in social class 5:

   	658-9   Messengers and porters.
   	920-930 General and undefined labourers.
   	940     Unskilled workers in factories, works, etc.
   	

   In other words, more than half the data for the bottom social class are not estimated at all. Similarly, the data provide precise numbers for both farmers (Occupation unit 11, social class 2) and agricultural labourers (Occupation units 20-23, social class 4), so the class divide in rural areas is recorded very directly. Thirdly, some of the occupational orders are closely associated with particular social classes. For example, 69% nationally of order XXV, "Professional Occupations", excluding teachers who were separately identified and were all in class 2, were in social class 1, and 89% in classes 1 or 2.
5. The table includes estimates for numbers in the Manual and Non-Manual sub-divisions of Social Class 3. This distinction was not made until significantly later, so the sub-division is based on Classification of Occupations 1980 (OPCS, 1980). However, note that that source was used only for the sub-division: assignment to Class 3, or to other whole classes, is based entirely on the RG's Decennial Supplement, 1931 For more details, see th documentation for our 1931 occupation codebook.

---

Checking:

1. These are derived data, and their accuracy therefore depends primarily on the accuracy of the underlying raw data tables: the 1931 occupational tables have been checked particularly carefully.
2. In addition, a number of checks were made at intermediate stages in the calculations. A final check was made to ensure that the sum of the final values for classes 1 to 5 equalled 'tot_occ', which it does in every case with the exception of Acton Middlesex, where a difference of 9 is due to a printing error documented for 'occ_1931_lg_t'. Given the method of calculation, this is strong evidence that all groups are correctly incorporated into the final figure.
3. The geographical units have been cross-checked against the GBHGIS administrative unit gazetteer to ensure that all units are correctly identified. Each unit has a unique unit ID assigned to it and this can be used to cross-reference against other data-sets.

---

Indices:

Index	Type	Column(s) indexed
soc_1931_ew_pkey	Primary key	rec_num
soc_1931_ew_g_unit_idx	Unique	g_unit, rec_num
soc_1931_ew_idx	Unique	lg_dist, lg_type, adm_cnty, rec_num
soc_1931_ew_idx_cnty	Unique	adm_cnty, rec_num

---

Constraints:

The table has the following associated constraints:

Constraint	Type	Details
soc_1931_ew_pkey	Primary Key	See details above for primary key index

---

Columns within table:

Column	Type	Contents
adm_cnty	Text string (max.len.=44).	Name of Administrative County unit as it appeared in the original report.
lg_dist	Text string (max.len.=64).	Name of Local Government District unit as it appeared in the original report.
lg_type	Text string (max.len.=16).	Type of Local Government District.
nation_unit	Integer number.	Unique ID number for nation unit. Derived from the Administrative County.
adm_cnty_unit	Integer number.	Unique ID number for county unit.
g_unit	Integer number.	Unique ID number for local government district unit.
part_of	Text string (max.len.=5).	A 'P' in this column indicates that data for only part of the place is recorded. It may be that another part is recorded in a different county.
source	Text string (max.len.=6).	Source table within the 1931 occupational tables from which the data derive: 'L' = Table 16 (large towns); 'S'= Table 17 (small towns and rural dstricts).
tot_occ	Integer number.	Total occupied male population aged 14 and over.
tot_o14	Integer number.	Total male population aged 14 and over, occupied and unoccupied.
class_1	Integer number.	Number of males aged 14 and over in Social Class 1 (Professional, etc Occupations).
class_2	Integer number.	Number of males aged 14 and over in Social Class 2 (Intermediate Occupations).
class_3	Integer number.	Number of males aged 14 and over in Social Class 3 (Skilled Occupations).
class_4	Integer number.	Number of males aged 14 and over in Social Class 4 (Partly Skilled Occupations).
class_5	Integer number.	Number of males aged 14 and over in Social Class 5 (Unskilled Occupations).
class_un	Integer number.	Number of males aged 14 and over not classified (Students, retired, working outside UK, etc).
class_3_man	Integer number.	Number of males aged 14 and over in Social Class 5: Manual. See note above.
class_3_nm	Integer number.	Number of males aged 14 and over in Social Class 5: Non-Manual. See note above.
rec_num	Integer number.	Unique number identifying row in table.