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.

No self awareness whatsoever. 😆

I totally get the backlash against class classification, I really do.

But to describe it as a 'system of hatred' is a bit silly. Human society has always been stratified to a degree. Even communist systems had their own stratifications, even if they were not overtly acknowledged.

According to OP’s post I am upper middle but as an immigrant, I will no doubt soon be the underclass, if not already(!).

That's just not what I said. I said it interests me and I have an opinion on it because for our society I think it has become irrelevant. That's called a point of view. There isn't any need to be so sarcastic.

No flaming clue.
I would say we are lower middle or upper working given that I have 5 degrees, own my own micro business and and am an ex teacher. My husband is a senior developer in an IT company, and we own our own home, take a couple of holidays a year etc.
However our household income is well below £60k a year; and I work in patient homes as a carer. We also have a very local accent and sound “rough” to some ears (apparently!) I am the daughter of a solider and a cleaner, my husband is the son of an engineer and a school receptionist. So not particularly “middle class” in either of us.

Im below lower class im poor.
I own an android phone no car dont own my home.
Work like a dog to keep my head afloat.
No kids no man debt fee owe nothing to knowone, bills all paid up to date month in advance.
A bit in savings noting by MN standereds but its mine.

But you know what im fucking happy and love my life.

I’ve had a few suspects quute me on here! Reverse snobbery. Like all the bloody guardian columnist insisting they are still working class, claiming to have regional accents (that no one can detect) and insisting they don’t fit in despite their oxbridge degrees. 🙄

Class, when you're British but also a 3rd generation immigrant, feels non-applicable. DH and I are from families who emigrated here at different stages of their lives. They were educated, had great professional careers, and were not poor when they arrived in the UK. But I've grown up 'feeling' working class, even if, by definition, our households were probably lower middle (me) and upper/upper middle (DH).

Is there a spectator class?

They were educated, had great professional careers, and were not poor when they arrived in the UK. But I've grown up 'feeling' working class, even if, by definition, our households were probably lower middle (me) and upper/upper middle (DH).

Why do you think that is?

Good for you! That’s brilliant to read.
God, a debate about class; who would have thought it! 🙈

I grew up very working class. My dad was a postman and my mum stacked shelves. I went to Grammar school and ended up getting a PhD and now my husband and I work in AI and our household income is around £300k. I present working class still though and I still feel working class. People I meet randomly would never guess how educated I am and what I do for a job. I personally don't think I will ever identify as middle class! I am not just going to stop being working class all of a sudden because of how much I earn. It is more deep rooted than that imo.

Upper working class.

I think most people are working class and it's not restricted to manual occupations.

The definition should evolve in line with changes in lifestyle, not move people into lower middle class because they eat olives or whatever.

My upbringing was middle. I feel middle class generally. But income, age we had children etc puts me firmly working class. I feel middle class but my income and some aspects of my current life don't support that.

Firmly upper middle in that criteria did go to a state school though

If you have to sell your time, to earn money which you need to live, then you’re working class.

Father was an east London market trader. He did OK and I grew up in home counties, went to grammar school and probably sound a bit posh. You should see my family parties.

I’m not sure this works. There are people in the City who get paid several million pounds a year in bonuses for their time.

I used to have a fruit fridge, does that mean I'm Upper class? You can't eat room temperature fruit, it doesn't taste good at all.

I’m “I don’t care and why do people care about these things” class.

Born into upper. DH was not. We are solidly upper middle class

God only knows, because I certainly don’t.

I grew up on a shithole council estate in a small northern town you’ve never heard of, never mind visited. Dad worked in a factory, mum in a pub. I was the first person in my family to go to university, then on to a professional career.

I’m now comfortably off & live in a lovely house in a rural village which estate agents describe as ‘highly desirable’. I drive a BMW convertible, shop at Waitrose, listen to R4, go to the theatre & read the Times. My privately educated colleagues think I sound like a working class northerner. My family think I sound posh. I don’t really belong in either world.

Oooh, I think it depends on the fruit, surely? A ice cold banana doesn’t sound like a good time.

We tick parts of both middle and upper middle.

But I swear like a trouper and wear leggings so I’m probably somewhere near the bottom to many.

Fruit bowl is on the kitchen table, which is a solid oak beauty that came out of a pub. The bowl was handmade by my FIL at school.

Bananas shouldn't be kept alongside other fruit, it gives off some sort of enzyme that breaks down other fruit.
We had a fridge dedicated to large whole fruit, mostly watermelon, pineapple and lots of oranges when they were reduced.