To ask what class you think you are?

[IHate]

People always say everyone on MN is middle class, but are we?! I honestly think it’s a pretty socioeconomically diverse mix.

What class would you say you are? Curious how people map themselves when you take both background and current life into account.

These are the rough descriptions I’m working from (from Reddit - I didn’t write them, so please don’t come for me 🤣). Heritage first, income last.

Upper class
Old families, land, inherited wealth, public schools, Oxbridge, connections that run through generations. Sparse vowels, quiet confidence, and a sense that everything important happens in drawing rooms you will never see.

Typical household income: irrelevant, wealth is inherited.

Likelihood of two parent families: very high.

Age at first child: early thirties.

Upper middle class
Professionals with long-standing pedigree. Parents and grandparents were doctors, civil servants, academics, barristers, consultants, senior military. Private or grammar schooling, strong cultural capital, instinctive ease in elite spaces. This is the group most people mean when they say “middle class”.

Typical household income: often £150k plus.

Likelihood of two parent families: high. Age at first child: early to mid thirties.

Middle class
Educated, comfortable, but not posh. Teachers, mid-level civil servants, senior nurses, managers, small business owners. Cultural capital is mixed. Grandparents may have been skilled workers. Big on gardens, National Trust, and well-behaved children.

Typical household income: around £90k to £150k.

Likelihood of two parent families: moderate to high.

Age at first child: late twenties to early thirties.

Lower middle class
Clerical, admin, retail management, entry-level professional families. Polite, aspirational, very aware of class boundaries. Parents or grandparents often from working class backgrounds. Transitional rather than settled.

Typical household income: around £60k to £90k.

Likelihood of two parent families: mixed.

Age at first child: mid to late twenties.

Working class
Manual trades, industrial work, care work, service work. Strong community identity, distinctive humour, bluntness valued over polish. Heritage is key. You can earn millions and remain working class because class is about where you come from, not what you now earn.

Typical household income: usually under £60k, though can be higher.

Likelihood of two parent families: lower than middle groups.

Age at first child: late teens to mid twenties.

Precariat
Insecure work, unstable housing, gig economy. Identity varies, but the instability itself defines the experience.

Typical household income: under £25k.

Likelihood of two parent families: low.

Age at first child: late teens to mid twenties.

I’m solidly working class. Also, if discussions about class make you cross, this is probably not the thread for you.

Honestly no idea.

Salaries in line with Upper Middle but not from a "long standing pedigree" (sounds like a breed of dog!!!)

Same growing up. My Dad from a working class background, left school at 15, excelled at sales and was earning more than I earn now 30 years ago.

DH is a chartered profession but comes from a very working class background.

No idea.

Somewhere between precariat and working class maybe? I’m leaning towards precariat due to unstable housing.

I come from a working class background, no one had any qualifications when I was growing up on a council estate.

I had middle class aspirations and valued education and progressing in my career.

I have an undergraduate degree and two masters degrees. I work in a solidly middle class profession full time but I haven’t got a pot to piss in. Due to the high cost of private rent, I’ll never own my own home or have stable housing.

I became a single parent with one child in my early 20s. I’m still single because I focused on building my career. I wish I’d prioritised finding a husband instead because all that knuckling down working hard hasn’t done me any good, well it has in terms of achievement but it hasn’t changed my life circumstances.

The class system is outdated. I don’t really fit in any of the boxes properly and neither do a lot of people nowadays.

All families are of course the same age. I have the same surname as posh squares in London but not the money. Lower middle for me.

Your categories put me at middle class but I would describe myself as well off working class. My dad was an inspector in the steel works and a union rep so my working class roots are solid. I was a manager in my local authority. I don’t see myself as middle class. I see myself as pretty happy with my lot

My parents are upper middle. My dad is a university professor, earned a very good employer matched pension.

I'm definitely a lower middle class, but did go to a grammar school. I have a lower than minimum wage job in spite of a degree and good career in publishing, which was rather curtailed by poor health 😢

My DD goes to private school so I think that makes things more confusing lol 😆 😅

When I did the BBC Class quiz I came out at Elite for some reason! I did have to laugh as no way would I be Upper according to this description. I do have family who would fit in most of the Upper Class description, but come from much more humble roots. Solidly middle.

My grandfather was a pharmacist and my father was an accountant. I work on a supermarket checkout, I’ve no idea what that makes me.

I was born into a working class family, both parents left school at 15 and worked in retail/service industry. My mother was extremely upwardly mobile though and would have given Hyacinth Bucket (it's bouquet) a run for her money.!
My own offspring fall somewhere between middle class and upper middle class, because we have a mixture of university academics, upper management and teachers between the four parents.

According to that, upper middle.

But I don't think class classification has much relevance any more. I'm in Ireland, and self employed tradespeople here make multiples of a standard professional salary and are much more likely to have property(s) of significant value.

I appreciate class is about more than that, but if you divorce it from money/capital entirely, it just becomes a silly pissing contest about fruit bowls and listening to radio 4.

I think the BBC one is more interesting/helpful than this

Underclass

Brought up upper middle, though your description doesn't entirely fit.

Now middle. Have striven all my adult life to remain upper middle but now admit defeat. Your middle class description fits me 100%.

Your class is determined by how you were brought up/your parents achievements. It’s got nothing to do with your own.
I’m working class. My DC are middle class.

What would you consider legit descriptions?

There was a whole thread about class literally a week or two ago. Its becoming a bit obsessive.

I don't think this is helpful or illuminating in real life though. Many people are living very different lives to their parents.

According to your description we are middle class but I always think of myself as working class

According to the op then lower middle.

Growing up with unemployed parents, lots of homelessness and instability. Now both myself and my Dh have good jobs that pay well. We don’t own a home because I can’t get rid of those itchy feet from childhood (I don’t want to feel trapped). I didn’t want to bring dc into the situation that I grew up in. We have savings, we enjoy life.

So in reality working class background, but we now have opportunities that we didn’t have growing up.

Still likely working class imo and I’m not ashamed of my history. I’ve learned from it.

My family used to be Underclass.

A mix really. Household income is £190k, split 65/35 between DH and I.

I was the first in my family to go to uni, whereas both his parents went to uni, though my dad went to grammar school and his dad didn’t learn to read til he was 12. My parents stayed together, his divorced. We had more money growing up however because my dad was a high earner. Holidays skiing and to Disneyland etc. My DH didn’t go abroad til he was 18. His grandparents are very wealthy, whereas mine were labourers and lived in a council house.

£900k house, have a nanny. No private school. We are both directors at work. We have a lot of savings because my dad died young and I inherited.

All a bit of a mix really.

Someone once told me that I must be working class because my parents are divorced. I hope someone has told Prince William that 😄id say lower middle. But I don't massively care really

Honestly no idea. I was born to working class parents who went to grammar schools and university and did well for themselves in professional careers but the rest of my family was resolutely working class. I am university educated and had a professional career til the kids came along. Now we live in the US where class is based on income and we’re upper class here. Added to the fact we came from the UK, so everyone thinks we’re “posh” even though we are not at all. We mix with newly wealthy people and old money and that’s fine because being British transcends it all.

With those descriptors I’m somewhere between working class and middle class because I have aspects of all three.

one parent educated, one parent not. Both grandparents sets of grandparents very much working class. I attended comprehensive school. I have a degree and professional (though not highly paid job, think nurse, teacher kind of salary), household income of about £80k. Though I fall into the working class bracket as I had my kids in my late teens/early 20s. However, we are still a two parent household and my DC are young adults now.

I don’t think I fit nicely into a box.

Yup.

I guess that I'm working class: Dad was a coalminer (previously the son of a peasant farmer); Mum was in service and then in factory work, born to a coalminer and mill worker.

I became a teacher. Married a teacher with a similar working class background. I guess that made us temporarily middle class?

Now I'm widow and a pensioner, living in a working class area. Income is about 22k a year. I'm not sure where I fit.

I suppose we are lower middle- degree educated, household income £70k, own our own terraced 3 bedroom house with a garden, but not in a fancy area. First child at 32 years old. Have our own car. Kids do lots of extra curricular clubs at the local private school at weekends. We visit a lot of National Trust/ Heritage properties but only on their free ticket days.
I work with a lot of more wealthy people, lots of their kids at private schools etc for education. lots live in affluent areas. I do feel a bit like I'm failing at times because it feels like their kids talk posh and feel different at our staff Christmas party. I don't feel refined like I feel they are refined.
My wider family is a bit better off than we are and would be a higher class. I am named in a family trust which is probably unusual for our social band but not a direct beneficiary currently.
My 8 year old son has some possibly unusual favourite foods- we'd gone into Waitrose for a couple of specialised cooking ingredients and he was begging to get some smoked salmon, pistachios and raspberries. Felt like we were going to be on the people of Waitrose page that day. Class is an odd sort of concept. I admire my wealthy colleagues fancy childrens names like Blythe but i'd feel ridiculous using the same somehow!