Social Class Statistics from the 1951 Census

Table ID:

SOC_1951_EW     (1253035)

Contents:

Social Class Statistics from the 1951 Census

Approx. number of rows:

1,471

Table type:

Raw Data

Documentation Author:

Humphrey Southall

Geography:

Reporting units are identified by:
   Administrative County
   Local Government District
   Local Government District Type

Chronology:

The data are for the single year 1951.

Sources:

1. The data for England and Wales are taken from table 27 in the County Reports of the 1951 census, 'Social Class distribution of Occupied and Retired Males aged 15 and over'. This is a full transcription of the original table, with the exception of the additional columns restating numbers in each class as a percentage of the total - which can easily be computed from the data held here.
2. National totals for England and Wales were added in July 2017 by Humphrey Southall from Table 17, "Social Classes by Age distinguishing four categories", on p.148 of Census 1951 England and Wales: Occupation Tables, using data for "Males (Occupied and Retired)" of all ages. This table does not give numbers for "not stated".

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Notes:

1. This table was originally called soc_1951 and was a combination of the English and Welsh table together with the Scottish data table. This was amended in January 2010 to follow the 1961/71 convention of dividing the data into one table containing England and Wales, and a separate table for Scotland. This table is now soc_1951_ew to reflect more accurately the area covered by the content.

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Checking:

1. The check constraint ensures that the individual social classes sum to the total number of males.
2. The data have been cross-checked against the 1951 data in the 'age_lgd' table to ensure that the list of districts is identical, and that the overall total populations are identical (but NB these were not in the original published table).
3. The figures for 'Total Males (Occupied and Retired) aged 15 and over' are not identical to the totals for males aged 15 and over in the age structure table, or in the occupations table. There is no explanation for this in the published tables. This means that there is no systematic cross-check that the rows of numerical data relate to the correct district.
4. The geographical units have been cross-checked against the GBHGIS administrative unit gazetteer to ensure that all units are correctly identified. Each unit has a unique unit ID assigned to it and this can be used to cross-reference against other datasets.

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Acknowledgments:

We are extremely grateful to the following:

1. Danny Dorling: The data for England and Wales were transcribed and supplied to the database by Daniel Dorling in August 1997; no restrictions have been placed on their use.

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Indices:

Index	Type	Column(s) indexed
soc_1951_ew_pkey	Primary key	rec_num
soc_1951_ew_g_unit_idx	Unique	g_unit, rec_num
soc_1951_ew_idx		adm_cnty, lg_dist, lg_type, rec_num

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Constraints:

The table has the following associated constraints:

Constraint	Type	Details
soc_1951_ew_pkey	Primary Key	See details above for primary key index
ck_soc_1951_ew	Check	((tot_m15 = ((((class_1 + class_2) + class_3) + class_4) + class_5)))

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Columns within table:

Column	Type	Contents
adm_cnty	Text string (max.len.=44).	Name of Administrative County unit as it appeared in the original report.
lg_dist	Text string (max.len.=64).	Name of Local Government District unit as it appeared in the original report.
lg_type	Text string (max.len.=16).	Type of Local Government District.
cnty_unit	Integer number.	Unique ID number for county unit.
g_unit	Integer number.	Unique ID number for local government district unit.
pop_1951	Integer number.	Total population of district (NB this information does not appear in the original tables).
tot_m15	Integer number.	Total Males (Occupied and Retired) aged 15 and over.
class_1	Integer number.	Number of males aged 15 and over in Social Class 1 (Professional, etc Occupations).
class_2	Integer number.	Number of males aged 15 and over in Social Class 2 (Intermediate Occupations).
class_3	Integer number.	Number of males aged 15 and over in Social Class 3 (Skilled Occupations).
class_4	Integer number.	Number of males aged 15 and over in Social Class 4 (Partly Skilled Occupations).
class_5	Integer number.	Number of males aged 15 and over in Social Class 5 (Unskilled Occupations).
notes	Text string (max.len.=1004).	Notes about boundary changes; values appearing are: 'B ??', 'B,N ??', 'C ??', 'N ??', 'N,B ??' (NB these do not appear in table 27 and were presumably transcribed by Dr. Dorling from somewhere else).
rec_num	Integer number.	Unique number identifying row in table.