§ Mr. Chris Smithasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the percentage distribution of the population as a whole in England by socio-economic group as used for census purposes in 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1984, respectively.
§ Mr. John PattenThe information required is available only for years between population censuses from the general household survey and for combined categories of socio-economic group. These figures are shown in the table. Figures for 1984 are not yet available.
Socio-economic groups of the population in England Percentages Socio-economic group 1980 1981 1982 1983 Professional (self-employed and employees) workers 5 4 5 5 Employers and Managers 16 14 16 16 Intermediate and Junior non manual workers 21 21 21 20 Skilled manual and Own Account (non professional) workers 36 36 35 34 Semi-skilled manual and Personal Service workers 17 19 18 19 Unskilled manual workers 5 5 5 6 BASE (= 100 per cent.) 25,333 26,169 21,473 21,114 In this table members of the Armed Forces, full-time students and those who have never worked have been excluded. Moreover a married woman is classified according to the socio-economic group of her husband if he is in the household, and a child under 16 is classified according to the socio-economic group of the father (if there is no father in the household the child is classified according to the socio-economic group of the head of household).
The General Household Survey is based on a sample of households and differences in these percentages from year to year are subject to sampling error.
Fuller details of the number of households in England and Wales classified by the socio-economic group of the household head—at the time of the 1981 Census—can be found in Table 8 of the Census 1981 report on Household and Family Composition.