Social Grade data for 2011 Local Authorities in England and Wales

Table ID:

SOC_2011_EW     (1253106)

Contents:

Social Grade data for 2011 Local Authorities in England and Wales

Approx. number of rows:

5,220

Table type:

Raw Data

Documentation Author:

Paula Aucott

Geography:

Reporting units are identified by:
   Local Government District Type

Chronology:

The data are for the single year 2011.

Sources:

1. These data were obtained from data table 'LC6124EW - Approximate social grade by sex by age', for Local Authorities from the 2011 Census of Population. The data was downloaded on 11th January 2017 in csv format from the NOMIS website operated by the University of Durham on behalf of the Office for National Statistics. The data are under Crown Copyright, but are made available for use under an Open Government Licence.

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Notes:

1. This table holds data for all Local Authorities in England and Wales.
2. The data contained a caveat about accuracy due to data protection which may affect results from the check sums. "In order to protect against disclosure of personal information from the 2011 Census, there has been swapping of records in the Census database between different geographic areas, and so some counts will be affected. In the main, the greatest effects will be at the lowest geographies, since the record swapping is targeted towards those households with unusual characteristics in small areas. More details on the ONS Census disclosure control strategy may be found at Statistical Disclosure Control."
3. The definition for Approximate Social grade given on a downloadable PDF of the metadata accompanyng this dataset from Nomis is: "Social grade is the socio-economic classification used by the Market Research and Marketing Industries, most often in the analysis of spending habits and consumer attitudes. Although it is not possible to allocate social grade precisely from information collected by the 2011 Census, the Market Research Society has developed a method for using census information to provide a good approximation of social grade. For more information see the supporting information page about the variable in the PDF accompanying the data download from NOMIS.
4. This Approximate Social grade differs from earlier Social Class data as it combines its initial two categories and last two categories and splits the middle one.
   • Grade AB = 'Higher and intermediate managerial/administrative/professional'
   • Grade C1 = 'Supervisory, clerical, junior managerial/administrative/professional'
   • Grade C2 = 'Skilled manual workers'
   • Grade DE = 'Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers; on state benefit, unemployed, lowest grade workers'
   This makes drawing direct comparisons difficult. Earlier Censuses use Social Class, differentiating them as: 'Social Class 1' (Professional, etc Occupations), 'Social Class 2' (Intermediate Occupations), 'Social Class 3' (Skilled Occupations), 'Social Class 4' (Partly Skilled Occupations), 'Social Class 5' (Unskilled Occupations).
5. This data only relates to persons aged between 16 and 74. It includes counts for All persons, Males and Females usually resident in households. It excludes children and full-time students living away from home and those in communal establishments.

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Checking:

1. The statistical data have not been checked
2. The geographical units have been cross-checked against the GBHGIS administrative unit gazetteer to ensure that all units are correctly identified. The unit names and types have been standardised. Each unit has a unique unit ID assigned to it and this can be used to cross-reference against other data-sets.

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Indices:

Index	Type	Column(s) indexed
soc_2011_ew_pkey	Primary key	rec_num
soc_2011_ew_g_unit_idx	Unique	g_unit, sex, rec_num

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Constraints:

The table has the following associated constraints:

Constraint	Type	Details
soc_2011_ew_pkey	Primary Key	See details above for primary key index

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Columns within table:

Column	Type	Contents
lau_code	Text string (max.len.=24).	ONS Code for the Local Authority as it appeared in the original table.
lau_name	Text string (max.len.=104).	Name of the Local Authority as it appeared in the original table.
lg_type	Text string (max.len.=16).	Type of unit.
g_unit	Integer number.	Unique ID number for local authority unit from the auo gazetteer.
g_name	Text string (max.len.=104).	Standardised name of local authority (preferred English name as given in the auo gazetteer).
sex	Text string (max.len.=6).	Sex: 'F'=Row refers to women; 'M'=Row refers to men; 'T'=Row is a total for men and women.
source	Text string (max.len.=20).	Source table from which the data derive = 'LC6124EW'
grade	Text string (max.len.=16).	Approximated Social Grade. Values in column are: 'Total', 'AB', 'C1', 'C2' and 'DE'. Further explanation can be found in the notes above.
p_16_64	Integer number.	Count of All people aged 16 to 64 in households.
p_16_24	Integer number.	Count of persons aged 16 to 24 in households.
p_25_34	Integer number.	Count of persons aged 25 to 34 in households.
p_35_44	Integer number.	Count of persons aged 35 to 44 in households.
p_45_54	Integer number.	Count of persons aged 45 to 54 in households.
p_55_64	Integer number.	Count of persons aged 55 to 64 in households.
rec_num	Integer number.	Unique number identifying row in table.