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.

I could fit in to working class, lower middle class or middle class. I'm educated, in a professional job, big on gardens, older 2 children are very well behaved, youngest is autistic and has learning difficulties so he probably wouldn't fall into 'well behaved' right now. Two parent family but DH is working class, as are our parents.
I do value bluntness over being polished but I also know how to play both roles. I actually had a discussion with my friend about that recently, who is also in a professional role but from a working class background, we spoke about how we can easily adapt how we communicate with different groups and how beneficial it can be. A lot of people from working class backgrounds can struggle with that and I think it can really hinder their opportunities in employment.

😂As befits a 'normous arse!

Pleb?

According to those criteria I'm middle class.

I think poor health scrambles things a bit.

Probably closest to lower middle, based on previous jobs, home ownership & age of having DC. However for the last year have become a carer for disabled DC, so income is currently at precariat level.

What an interesting thread!

I have no idea why some people are just commenting to complain, though. It’s clear from the thread title what it’s about. If it’s a topic that doesn’t interest you, why click? Masochism?!

To the people who disagree with the household income classifications: Average UK salary is £38,100, going up to* *£49,692 in London. Multiplied by two, that’s an average household income of £76,200 (£99,384 in London). Which seems to track with the above. Obviously not every household is dual income, but I think ‘household income’ estimates tend to be based on two salaries.

I also tend to agree with the people who think that your class is more based on your parents and grandparents than your own personal achievements, education and so on. For example, Alan Sugar is a billionaire, but will always be working class. His kids, on the other hand, are probably at least UMC, and his grandkids are probably vair vair posh.

I also don’t get why this all makes people so cross. There’s nothing wrong with being X or Y class, although I wish we lived in a country where the precariat didn’t exist - everyone should have enough. People who do think there’s something wrong with belonging to a certain class are just revealing their own snobbery, inverse or otherwise.

I’m a peasant 💁‍♀️ and proudly so! My DF became a self made millionaire when I was in my mid teens, rags to riches story. Nothing has changed, we all still live in the same rural area - parents still in the same house. I think a lot is mindset. We were always happy, just now with no money worries.

I’m Irish (the north), so class is bit different but I wouldn’t want to turn my back my back on my ancestral roots. Plus you’d get the arse ripped out of ye if started acting above your station. lol

Born working class….married upper class, enough wealth to not work (albeit was not aware of that until recently).

There are times when I do think to myself that I live a life so far removed from anything that I ever thought possible; but on other hand it’s also very normal to me now.

I'm firmly upper middle class in terms of long-standing pedigree and family background, landed property ownership, education, work and household income, connections and cultural capital.

My children would probably class themselves as middle class despite their posh education. Due to divorce, I don't feel that I gave them quite the same great start in life that I had as I got divorced and moved abroad so that probably confused things. One DC is moving towards one of the more senior upper middle class roles on the list, but married to a working class DH and mixes with a real cross-spectrum of people. The other DC is firmly in a skilled but manual middle class job and unlikely to move out of it, but probably mixes more with the upper middle than his sibling.

I think people are now so socially mobile now that the class barriers have become very difficult to define, but family connections, background and schooling is something that is usually instantly recognisable so there is no denying that the class system and the prejudice that goes with it, still exists.

I have a mixture of cultural influences and don't feel like I fit in anywhere to be honest.

This is so true, born working class (albeit am not British). Married, I guess, Upper/ Upper middle now…..given it’s difficult to place me (as not British) feel that I am most likely accepted given my husband’s title and that am not British.

I have all the criteria of Middle Class, although I would never describe myself as such, because I think the whole 'Class' thing is cringey and I wish people would just stop with it all.

Why do we need to decide what class we might be? I just don’t get it!

Why is the stereotype that everyone thinks everyone on MN is middle class?

Half the threads here are about how someone's DP is a cocklodger with sporadic income and OP is annoyed that their blended family won't qualify for UC anymore now that DWP have found out he's living in the house...

DH and my DDad are immigrants so they don’t match the criteria.
I don’t really fit this. My income is UMC as is my job but I went to a state school, was first in my family to go to university and then entered a traditional profession. Both DC are privately educated but are half North African so not old established families at all.

I do think that modern Britain is much more nuanced these days.

One can't help wondering why you are asking.

Interested in the pole who say class does not exist in other countries.
Accents - do other countries have the large number of accents and different despite proximity as the UK?
Do similar levels of jobs share similar hobbies and interests?
Confidence - not restricted to any class but requires self belief.
Interest in history, heritage or environmental concerns. No reason why it should be limited to one group. Self exclusion or lack of interest which is fair enough (your loss though)
Cost of hobbies - how much for a premier football season ticket? DH likes sailing - a snotty yachtie in some people views. £900 sailing dinghy, £500 a year sailing club and berthing fees, £50 insurance and say £300 for annual repairs. His second yacht - first was an ancient one ironically initially promoted by that organ of the upper class Daily Mirror!

Class definitely exists in Ireland, but it is not as overt and doesn't have as much impact on day to day life.

My job makes us middle class my husbands job makes us working class our combined income puts us at middle class but we are both from working class backgrounds

I’d say I grew up lower middle/ working class and DH very firmly working class but we now fit more for middle by those definitions, I am still Alan from the block though.

My very lucky children are firmly middle class and don’t understand how fortunate they are.

From your description I'm middle class but I'm from a council estate in Liverpool and will always feel working class. Maybe when the kids grow up they'll feel middle class. Who knows.

Middle class. But despite my good job I'm much less well off than my parents and don't live in a middle class type house

My father was probably upper middle class- public school educated, his father was very high up in his civil service type role and worked abroad helping to run several countries that Britain owned so my father lived in several countries.

My mother is from very much working class roots-
men go out to work and then get boozed up in the pub, women raise the kids. That sort of thing.

I think I’d consider myself to have grown up lower middle class.

I have always thought myself working class but going by those descriptions I would now be lower middle class.
My dad attended grammar school but my parents worked in public service jobs and we lived on a council estate.
I was the first and only person in my family to go to university, but classically, an art student, I dropped out.
I had a 20 year career in journalism and am now in clerical work. Husband is a skilled labourer. We are buying our own house. If I worked full time our income would be in £50-60k region.