* **Class mobility feels more common:** Over one-third of Britons said they’ve changed social class at some point in life.
* **“Polyclass” identity emerged:** Researchers coined *polyclass* for people who identify with more than one class simultaneously — estimated at about **6 million people in Britain**.
* **Upper classes reported more fluid identities:** Upper-middle and upper-class respondents were most likely to say they belonged to multiple classes or had moved between them.
* **Working-class identity was more stable:** About **70% of working-class respondents** said they remained in the social class they were born into.
* **Class remains socially sensitive:** Nearly half of respondents said they had felt judged because of class. Many ranked class as more influential than age, gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation in shaping how others perceive them.
* **Traditional class labels may be weakening:** Researchers argued older categories (such as ABC1) no longer reliably predict beliefs, attitudes, or political alignment.
* **Millennials showed the strongest sense of movement:** Nearly half said they had changed class or identified across multiple classes.
* **Working-class people often adapt socially:** They were more likely to change behaviour or speech to fit into professional or social environments, though about one-third said they never felt pressure to do so.
* **Social mobility doesn’t erase wellbeing differences:** Separate research found people from working-class backgrounds who moved into higher-status jobs still reported lower wellbeing than peers from more affluent origins.
* **Background continues to matter:** People from wealthier families had higher wellbeing overall and were more protected from downward mobility because of financial and social safety nets.
* **Policy implication:** Researchers argued that improving wellbeing requires more than economic mobility — including better education access, career opportunities, stronger communities, and broader support systems.
CanIDevIt on
There are only 2 classes – you either have to work for a living, or you don’t.
Salty-Bid1597 on
Perhaps related to the fact that the concept of class is utterly subjective and of little interest to anyone except terminally boring political types.
Southern_Shirt8487 on
It’s first, second and third world countries all over again. The meaning is completely lost on people. If you work for a living you are working class. The middle class is an invention to divide the working class vote. If you don’t need to work you are not working class, you can still work, but your not working class. I have no envy of the none working class and hope we can each achieve that goal within our life times.
Few-Leave-8786 on
Friend of mine jokes I am middle class as I get a few quid above minimum wage, I have credit cards (that are paid off) have nice things like tv, computer etc and no debt outside of student loans.
That is because for years I was thrifty, lived in the worst part of town, in cheaper towns, never got a car and lived off reduced supermarket food rather than spend money just because I had it and now it’s paid off.
In past 3 years once a year I go away with friends to a cottage which costs about £300 for a week, don’t have a passport, share a car and pay petrol costs and my treats when on holiday are going to cheapest local butcher I can find and buying meat rather than get take aways.
JoeyJoJoeJr_Shabadoo on
Grew up in a detached 4 bed in Harpenden with a huge garden that cost my parents like £80k and is now worth close to a mil.
Currently live in a 1 bed flat that cost £360k and save next to nothing.
Yeah.
RaymondBumcheese on
If we are still pretending to do class, middle class is basically now ‘if the boiler breaks I can afford to fix it without going on the credit card’.
-Alea_Iacta_Est_ on
I mean I was lower class, now I’m working class so it wasn’t like I could do worse.
Horatio2200 on
I was middle class as a child. My parents had a big house, two cars and retired at 55. They must easily be worth a couple of million with house price plus pension value and the stocks they own.I’m now 41 and still rent and have 30k in a private pension. I think its safe to say that I’ve slipped down a few social classes. Crazy because my father was only a policeman.
Euclid_Interloper on
Social class is outdated honestly. You can have a degree from a top university, a professional job paying over the median wage, and still barely be able to afford to buy a flat.
Who honestly cares if you like beer Vs wine or rugby Vs football. The ‘class’ divide is increasingly being replaced with an age divide.
Expensive_Time_7367 on
I think what is heavily overlooked in terms of class perception in the survey is schooling. I know plenty of people who went to the Etons, Harrows etc. who could not send their own children to private school at all because it’s so bloody expensive. So they have arguably fallen two social classes in one generation on one metric.
russ_knightlife on
If you can’t afford to miss your wage for 6 months, you are working class and nothing else.
My generation conned themselves in to thinking they’re middle class if they sit behind a desk and buy lunch everyday.
PartyPoison98 on
For a lot of Gen Z/Millennials, the problem is that they had working class parents who temporarily did well during the 90s and early 00s, making them middle class economically, but didn’t have the same connections and education which meant when they money dried up, they reverted back to where they were.
WheresMyFlamingo on
I’m proudly working class as are my parents.
My car is old
My income is average but I’m comfortable with my own home
I dont buy clothes often, and I re-use what I can
My only downfall is the occasional weekly coffee from Starbucks I know people who make more money than me but they’re living from pay check to pay check.
Soppydogg on
I was fortunate enough to go to a fee paying school.
A classical education doesn’t buy you a class change, it just allows you to schmooze those who are further up the greasy pole so you can hang on their coat tails.
A certain daughter of a BA Cabin Crew girlie springs to mind.
As I was told in prep “it’s not only cream that floats to the top”
Roger-Melly on
Wage stagnation for decades prevents any ‘levelling up’ the idea we can transcend class through hard work is a big fat lie
Spamgrenade on
That’s because the traditional idea of class means nothing in the UK anymore.
CaptainHindsight92 on
I work as a scientist, given our education, socialisation etc many of my colleagues consider themselves middle class (as I imagine most people do) yet a bar manager or plumber with no A levels, undergraduate degree, masters degree or PhD can easily out earn a scientist. There is only the super rich and the rest of us.
Roger-Melly on
Many have gone from middle to working lower class due to wage stagnation and manufactured housing crisis than benifts the landlord class
Groffulon on
We need to remove the word class from social demographics. It’s manipulative af. It should be –
Low income bracket
Middle income bracket
High income bracket
Parasite income bracket
A class act is a person who treats everyone in the world fairly, honourably, and with style. Ypu can’t do that if you’re wealthier than sin surrounded by the devastation and inequality you’ve caused pretending it doesn’t exist.
Class has nothing to do with money. The sooner we relearn this the better!
Dapper_Otters on
Interesting survey, but why on earth would they not try to measure how many people believed they had moved up vs down in class?
LordLucian on
I don’t believe anymore for a second that there are three social classes such as the working, middle and upper class, I believe there are two, Those who hold wealth, power and influence and the rest of us.
22 Comments
TLDR:
* **Class mobility feels more common:** Over one-third of Britons said they’ve changed social class at some point in life.
* **“Polyclass” identity emerged:** Researchers coined *polyclass* for people who identify with more than one class simultaneously — estimated at about **6 million people in Britain**.
* **Upper classes reported more fluid identities:** Upper-middle and upper-class respondents were most likely to say they belonged to multiple classes or had moved between them.
* **Working-class identity was more stable:** About **70% of working-class respondents** said they remained in the social class they were born into.
* **Class remains socially sensitive:** Nearly half of respondents said they had felt judged because of class. Many ranked class as more influential than age, gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation in shaping how others perceive them.
* **Traditional class labels may be weakening:** Researchers argued older categories (such as ABC1) no longer reliably predict beliefs, attitudes, or political alignment.
* **Millennials showed the strongest sense of movement:** Nearly half said they had changed class or identified across multiple classes.
* **Working-class people often adapt socially:** They were more likely to change behaviour or speech to fit into professional or social environments, though about one-third said they never felt pressure to do so.
* **Social mobility doesn’t erase wellbeing differences:** Separate research found people from working-class backgrounds who moved into higher-status jobs still reported lower wellbeing than peers from more affluent origins.
* **Background continues to matter:** People from wealthier families had higher wellbeing overall and were more protected from downward mobility because of financial and social safety nets.
* **Policy implication:** Researchers argued that improving wellbeing requires more than economic mobility — including better education access, career opportunities, stronger communities, and broader support systems.
There are only 2 classes – you either have to work for a living, or you don’t.
Perhaps related to the fact that the concept of class is utterly subjective and of little interest to anyone except terminally boring political types.
It’s first, second and third world countries all over again. The meaning is completely lost on people. If you work for a living you are working class. The middle class is an invention to divide the working class vote. If you don’t need to work you are not working class, you can still work, but your not working class. I have no envy of the none working class and hope we can each achieve that goal within our life times.
Friend of mine jokes I am middle class as I get a few quid above minimum wage, I have credit cards (that are paid off) have nice things like tv, computer etc and no debt outside of student loans.
That is because for years I was thrifty, lived in the worst part of town, in cheaper towns, never got a car and lived off reduced supermarket food rather than spend money just because I had it and now it’s paid off.
In past 3 years once a year I go away with friends to a cottage which costs about £300 for a week, don’t have a passport, share a car and pay petrol costs and my treats when on holiday are going to cheapest local butcher I can find and buying meat rather than get take aways.
Grew up in a detached 4 bed in Harpenden with a huge garden that cost my parents like £80k and is now worth close to a mil.
Currently live in a 1 bed flat that cost £360k and save next to nothing.
Yeah.
If we are still pretending to do class, middle class is basically now ‘if the boiler breaks I can afford to fix it without going on the credit card’.
I mean I was lower class, now I’m working class so it wasn’t like I could do worse.
I was middle class as a child. My parents had a big house, two cars and retired at 55. They must easily be worth a couple of million with house price plus pension value and the stocks they own.I’m now 41 and still rent and have 30k in a private pension. I think its safe to say that I’ve slipped down a few social classes. Crazy because my father was only a policeman.
Social class is outdated honestly. You can have a degree from a top university, a professional job paying over the median wage, and still barely be able to afford to buy a flat.
Who honestly cares if you like beer Vs wine or rugby Vs football. The ‘class’ divide is increasingly being replaced with an age divide.
I think what is heavily overlooked in terms of class perception in the survey is schooling. I know plenty of people who went to the Etons, Harrows etc. who could not send their own children to private school at all because it’s so bloody expensive. So they have arguably fallen two social classes in one generation on one metric.
If you can’t afford to miss your wage for 6 months, you are working class and nothing else.
My generation conned themselves in to thinking they’re middle class if they sit behind a desk and buy lunch everyday.
For a lot of Gen Z/Millennials, the problem is that they had working class parents who temporarily did well during the 90s and early 00s, making them middle class economically, but didn’t have the same connections and education which meant when they money dried up, they reverted back to where they were.
I’m proudly working class as are my parents.
My car is old
My income is average but I’m comfortable with my own home
I dont buy clothes often, and I re-use what I can
My only downfall is the occasional weekly coffee from Starbucks I know people who make more money than me but they’re living from pay check to pay check.
I was fortunate enough to go to a fee paying school.
A classical education doesn’t buy you a class change, it just allows you to schmooze those who are further up the greasy pole so you can hang on their coat tails.
A certain daughter of a BA Cabin Crew girlie springs to mind.
As I was told in prep “it’s not only cream that floats to the top”
Wage stagnation for decades prevents any ‘levelling up’ the idea we can transcend class through hard work is a big fat lie
That’s because the traditional idea of class means nothing in the UK anymore.
I work as a scientist, given our education, socialisation etc many of my colleagues consider themselves middle class (as I imagine most people do) yet a bar manager or plumber with no A levels, undergraduate degree, masters degree or PhD can easily out earn a scientist. There is only the super rich and the rest of us.
Many have gone from middle to working lower class due to wage stagnation and manufactured housing crisis than benifts the landlord class
We need to remove the word class from social demographics. It’s manipulative af. It should be –
Low income bracket
Middle income bracket
High income bracket
Parasite income bracket
A class act is a person who treats everyone in the world fairly, honourably, and with style. Ypu can’t do that if you’re wealthier than sin surrounded by the devastation and inequality you’ve caused pretending it doesn’t exist.
Class has nothing to do with money. The sooner we relearn this the better!
Interesting survey, but why on earth would they not try to measure how many people believed they had moved up vs down in class?
I don’t believe anymore for a second that there are three social classes such as the working, middle and upper class, I believe there are two, Those who hold wealth, power and influence and the rest of us.
It’s not left vs right anymore its us vs them.