Codebook assigning 1931 occupations to social classes and other categorisations

Table ID:

OCC_1931_CODEBOOK     (1251954)

Contents:

Codebook assigning 1931 occupations to social classes and other categorisations

Approx. number of rows:

591

Table type:

Codebook

Documentation Author:

Humphrey Southall

Chronology:

The data are for the single year 1931.

Sources:

1. The list of 'Occupation Units, and the associated levels, comes from Table 16, 'Occupations of Males and Females aged 14 years and over showing also the total "Operatives" and the total "Out of Work" for England and Wales, Regions, Administrative Counties, County Boroughs and other Urban Areas with Populations exceeding 50,000', pp. 154-425 in: Census, 1931: Classification of Occupations, (London: HMSO, 1934). A full transcription of this table is held as 'occ_1931_lg_t'.
2. The codes for Social classes 1 to 5, and the national total numbers in each occupation unit, were taken from "Table 1, "Aggregate mortality in each Occupation Unit distinguished at the census and in Social Classes providing a comparison of actual and standard deaths in respect of the age period 20-65 for Males and Single Women ad shewing the mortality of Legitimate and Illegitimate Infants under 1 year of age.", pp.191-210 in The Registrar General's Decennial Supplement: England and Wales, 1931, Part IIa, Occupational Mortality (London: HMSO, 1938). NB there is much other information of interest in this table, including some regional break-downs.

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Notes:

1. This table was created to assist in computing social class statistics from the 1931 occupational statistics (see 'soc_1931'). In particular, it enables the "Occupational Units", meaning the most detailed level of the occupational classification used by the 1931 census, to be assembled not only into the order and sub-orders used by the census, but also into the most detailed mutually exclusive categories used by the summary occupational table for small towns and Rural Districts, and into the Registrar General's Social Classification.
2. This table contains only the most detailed categories, so the rows are a subset of those appearing in 'occ_1931_lg_t'.
3. This table currently (January 2017) matches all relevant occupations appearing in the England and Wales table for counties and large towns, occ_1931_lg_t. HOWEVER, THE SCOTTISH DATA HELD IN occ_1931_s HAS A DIFFERENT AND LARGER LIST OF OCCUPATIONS SO A SEPARATE CODEBOOK IS NEEDED.
4. In March 2023 this codebook was revised to add a breakdown of Social Class 3 into manual and non-manual. This distinction was not made in the 1930s, so the division was based on Classification of Occupations 1980 (OPCS, 1980). Although a new column, soc_class_div, is added, for classes other than 3 it simply copies the values in soc_class. Most occupations in Class 3 were obviously manual, and assigned the value "3_MAN". The organisation of the OPCS Classification volume then required a complex process:
   • Each occupation was looked up in the "Coding Index" which is the largest part of the Classification, and gives an "Operational Code" for each entry.
   • The correspondin Occupation Group was then looked up in Appendix G of the Classification. This Occupation Group sometimes depended on employment status, forepersons and managers being assigned to a sparate group.
   • Finally, Appendix E lists whether each Occupation Grouo was manual or non-manual.
   Given this com;lex process, the Operational Code and Occupation Group values are also held here for the occupations that were checked.

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Checking:

1. The values of 'pop_1931' were summed for each occupational order and checked against the overall total for the order.
2. The values of 'soc_class' were subject to very careful visual checking.

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Indices:

Index	Type	Column(s) indexed
occ_1931_codebook_pkey	Primary key	row_id
occ_1931_codebook_idx1	Unique	row_id, lev_3, occ_group, soc_class
occ_1931_codebook_idx2	Unique	occ_group, soc_class, row_id, lev_3
occ_1931_codebook_idx3	Unique	row_id, lev_3, occ_group, soc_class_div

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Constraints:

The table has the following associated constraints:

Constraint	Type	Details
occ_1931_codebook_pkey	Primary Key	See details above for primary key index

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Columns within table:

Column	Type	Contents
row_id	Floating point number.	Numeric field identifying and placing in order the different rows of information as they are usually listed. These IDs were created by the project, and exactly match those used in occ_1931_lg_t.
lev_1	Floating point number.	Occupational Order, i.e. level 1 occupational category, given in roman numerals in the original report.
occ_order	Text string (max.len.=116).	Name of the Occupational Order (level 1 occupational category).
lev_2	Floating point number.	Occupational sub-Order, i.e. level 2 category. This does not appear for all level 1 categories.
sub_order	Text string (max.len.=88).	Name of the Occupational sub-Order (level 2 occupational category).
lev_3	Floating point number.	Occupation Unit (level 3 occupational category); a three digit number running from 0 to 962, with 998 and 999 used by us to identify rows originally un-numbered.
occup	Text string (max.len.=110).	Name of the Occupation Unit. This is the full text as used in the source tables.
occ_group	Text string (max.len.=26).	Mutually exclusive occupational group for men. These are based on the occupations used in 'occ_1931_sm_m', but identifying residual orders (such as 'XXV_PROFESSION_EX') excluding those more detailed groups which also appear (such as 'XXV_800_TEACHER').
fem_group	Text string (max.len.=26).	Mutually exclusive occupational group for women. These are based on the occupations used in 'occ_1931_sm_f', but identifying residual orders (such as 'XXV_PROFESSION_EX') excluding those more detailed groups which also appear (such as 'XXV_800_TEACHER').
soc_class	Floating point number.	Social class. These run from 1 to 5, but 6 is used to identify Occupational Units listed by the census report but ignored by the Decennial Supplement. This covers: Students in Educational Institutions, etc. Persons following an Occupation outside the United Kingdom, in the Irish Free State or elsewhere. Retired from Previous Gainful Occupation. Other Persons (no Gainful Occupation stated).
opcode_80	Integer number.	Three-digit operational code, as used in the detailed coding index within Classification of Occupations 1980. These appear only for occupations within Class 3 which were potentially non-manual.
occgrp_80	Floating point number.	Occupation Group ID, as used in Appendix E of Classification of Occupations 1980. These appear only for occupations within Class 3 which were potentially non-manual, and are three digit numbers plus one decimal point.
soc_class_div	Text string (max.len.=10).	Social class, with social class 3 divided into manual ("3_MAN") and non-manual ("3_NM"). Values are identical to soc_class for all other classes, but NB the values are necessarily text strings, not integers.
sic_query	Text string (max.len.=6).	This is a flag column which holds 'Q' if our assignment of the 1931 occupation to the 2007 SIC was seen as especially problematic; otherwise empty.
sic_division	Integer number.	Integer number identifying the 2007 SIC 'Division' to which we have assigned the 1931 occupation. These form a single sequence running from 1 to 99, and we have added code 100 to identify people who were in employment but cannot be assigned to an industry. Persons who were not working have a null value.
sic_division_name	Text string (max.len.=138).	Name of the 2007 SIC 'Division'. For example, 'AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHING' is divided into (01) 'Crop and animal production, hunting and related service activities', (02) 'Forestry and logging', and (03) 'Fishing and aquaculture'. Some Sections contain only one division.
pop_1931	Floating point number.	Number of males in the occupation unit in England and Wales, as listed in the Decennial Supplement.