Social class statistics

Question 1

Health Inequalities

Answer 1

• In the UK 12.7% of people in managerial and professional occupations smoke compared with 28.4% of those in routine and manual occupations
• Males in the most deprived areas of the UK had a life expectancy of 9 years less than males in the least deprived areas.

Question 2

Education

Answer 2

• About 6% of the UK’s school population attend private schools, and the families accessing private education are usually the more affluent families.
• By the age of 6 there is a 14% gap in phonics attainment between children entitled to free school meals and those more advantaged.
• Only 16% of pupils on free school meals attain at least 2 A levels by the age of 19, compared to 39% of all other pupils

Question 3

Home Ownership

Answer 3

• 86% of renters have less than the £8,838.65 needed for even a 5% deposit for a mortgage on an average first home in the UK.

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Question 4

Poverty

Answer 4

• The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said that while paid employment reduces the risk of poverty, about 56% of people living in poverty in 2018 were in a household where at least one person had a job.
• 17% average pay gap between m + w.c (S. BBC social mobility commission 2017)
• If you are Black, you are 70% more likely to live in a deprived area than a white person, 114% for Bangladeshi, 125% for Pakistani (Why is Covid…)
• People with no qualifications are almost twice as likely to fall into poverty compared to any people with qualifications (S. Households below average income)

Question 5

Work and Employment

Answer 5

• Professional people from working class backgrounds are paid 17% less than their colleagues from more affluent backgrounds.
• Graduates who were on free school meals earn 11.5% less than others 5 years after graduating.
• Kids from average middle-income families lose out in the race for professional jobs. It has long been recognised that the UK is an unequal society in which class background too often determines life chances.

Question 6

Ethnicity

Answer 6

The unemployment rate for black, Asian and minority ethnic people (8%) is nearly double that of white British adults (4.6%)

The highest rates of unemployment for women were in the Arab (64%), Bangladeshi (61%), Pakistani (60%) and Gypsy or Irish Traveller (60%) ethnic groups

Question 7

Media

Answer 7

• Devereux (2008) - working-class are categorised into the “deserving “and “happy“, vs the negative image of those on welfare benefits
• Dodd and Dodd (1992) - Eastenders has included issues such as ‘unemployment, imprisonment, rape, drugs, homosexuality, infidelity, divorce, AIDS, abortion, ageing and death’
• 11% of journalists are w.c (Alan Milburn’s State of the Nation report)