Occupational progression
Published:
11 September 2024
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Data on upward mobility into professional careers for men and women aged 25 to 44 in the UK, by socio-economic background.
Summary main findings
Men and women aged 25 to 44 years from professional socio-economic backgrounds are more likely than those from other socio-economic backgrounds to work in professional occupations.
People’s chances of working in the professional classes go up from 25 to 35 years old, and then slow in their late 30s and early 40s. This increase is greater for young people from professional backgrounds while the decline is greater for young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
By sex
Visualisation
Probability of access to the professional classes by socio-economic background, sex and age, controlling for survey year (UK, 2014 to 2022 combined)
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Data
| Age (years) | Lower working | Higher working | Intermediate | Lower professional | Higher professional | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men (%) | Women (%) | Men (%) | Women (%) | Men (%) | Women (%) | Men (%) | Women (%) | Men (%) | Women (%) | |
| 25 | 23.9 | 25.8 | 29.9 | 31.4 | 32.4 | 34.6 | 42.6 | 43.8 | 47.9 | 47.3 |
| 26 | 25.2 | 26.8 | 31.7 | 32.7 | 34.4 | 36.1 | 45.2 | 45.8 | 50.7 | 49.5 |
| 27 | 26.5 | 27.7 | 33.4 | 33.9 | 36.3 | 37.6 | 47.7 | 47.8 | 53.4 | 51.6 |
| 28 | 27.7 | 28.4 | 35.0 | 35.1 | 38.0 | 38.9 | 50.0 | 49.5 | 56.0 | 53.5 |
| 29 | 28.7 | 29.1 | 36.5 | 36.1 | 39.7 | 40.1 | 52.2 | 51.2 | 58.3 | 55.3 |
| 30 | 29.7 | 29.7 | 37.9 | 37.0 | 41.2 | 41.2 | 54.2 | 52.7 | 60.5 | 56.9 |
| 31 | 30.6 | 30.2 | 39.2 | 37.8 | 42.6 | 42.1 | 56.1 | 54.0 | 62.4 | 58.4 |
| 32 | 31.3 | 30.5 | 40.3 | 38.4 | 43.9 | 42.9 | 57.8 | 55.3 | 64.2 | 59.7 |
| 33 | 31.9 | 30.8 | 41.2 | 38.9 | 45.0 | 43.6 | 59.3 | 56.3 | 65.9 | 60.9 |
| 34 | 32.4 | 30.9 | 42.1 | 39.3 | 46.0 | 44.2 | 60.6 | 57.3 | 67.3 | 61.9 |
| 35 | 32.7 | 30.9 | 42.8 | 39.6 | 46.8 | 44.6 | 61.8 | 58.1 | 68.6 | 62.8 |
| 36 | 33.0 | 30.8 | 43.3 | 39.7 | 47.5 | 44.9 | 62.9 | 58.7 | 69.7 | 63.6 |
| 37 | 33.0 | 30.6 | 43.7 | 39.8 | 48.0 | 45.1 | 63.7 | 59.3 | 70.7 | 64.2 |
| 38 | 33.0 | 30.2 | 43.9 | 39.6 | 48.3 | 45.1 | 64.5 | 59.6 | 71.5 | 64.7 |
| 39 | 32.8 | 29.8 | 44.0 | 39.4 | 48.5 | 44.9 | 65.1 | 59.9 | 72.2 | 65.1 |
| 40 | 32.5 | 29.2 | 43.9 | 39.0 | 48.6 | 44.7 | 65.5 | 60.0 | 72.8 | 65.3 |
| 41 | 32.0 | 28.6 | 43.7 | 38.5 | 48.5 | 44.3 | 65.8 | 60.0 | 73.2 | 65.5 |
| 42 | 31.4 | 27.8 | 43.4 | 37.8 | 48.2 | 43.8 | 65.9 | 59.9 | 73.5 | 65.5 |
| 43 | 30.7 | 26.9 | 42.8 | 37.0 | 47.8 | 43.1 | 66.0 | 59.6 | 73.7 | 65.3 |
| 44 | 29.8 | 25.9 | 42.2 | 36.2 | 47.2 | 42.3 | 65.8 | 59.2 | 73.7 | 65.1 |
Download
For the full download file, see Download the data.
About the data
Data source
Office for National Statistics (ONS), Labour Force Survey (LFS)
Time period
2014 to 2022 (combined)
Geographic area
UK
What the data measures
The data shows the patterns of upward career mobility into the professional classes (known as intra-generational mobility) for people aged 25 to 44 years in the UK.
Data is shown for the following socio-economic backgrounds:
- higher professional class
- lower professional class
- intermediate class
- higher working class
- lower working classes
These are based on the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC), set by the ONS.
Things you need to know
The data used is weighted using LFS person weights.
The error bars show 95% confidence intervals. Read more about confidence intervals.
Type of data
Survey data
Full report
Read more in State of the Nation 2024 on GOV.UK.
Download the data
Download full dataset (CSV, 43KB)
This file contains the following variables:
- Indicator code
- Indicator name
- Area type
- Area code
- Area name
- Time period
- Socio-economic background
- Age
- Sex
- Value
- Lower confidence interval
- Upper confidence interval
- Standard error
- Unit
Page history
Publication release date:
11 September 2024