Occupational progression

Published: 29 October 2026
see all updates

Data on upward mobility into professional careers for men and women aged 25 to 44 in the UK, by socio-economic background and year.

Summary main findings
By sex
About the data
Download the data

Summary main findings

In both time periods covered by the data – the 3 years to 2016, and the 3 years to 2025:

men and women aged 25 to 44 years from professional socio-economic backgrounds were more likely than those from other socio-economic backgrounds to work in professional occupations
people’s chances of working in professional roles went up from 25 to 35 years old, and then slowed down in their late 30s and early 40s – the initial increase was greater for young people from professional backgrounds, and the decline was greater for young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds

In the 3 years to 2025:

25-year-old women had slightly higher chances than 25-year-old men of being in a professional job
men from all socio-economic backgrounds had a greater chance of being in a higher professional occupation by the age of 44 than women

Between the 3 years to 2016 and the 3 years to 2025, the probability of being in a professional occupation went up across all ages, socio-economic backgrounds, and sexes

In the 3 years to 2016, there was no gap between 25-year-old men and women in their probability of entering higher professional roles across any socio-economic background. In the 3 years to 2025, 25-year-old women moved slightly ahead of men.

By sex

Probability of access to the professional classes by socio-economic background, sex and age, controlling for survey year (UK, 2014 to 2016, and 2023 to 2025)

Men 2014 to 2016

Men 2023 to 2025

Women 2014 to 2016

Women 2023 to 2025

Click or tap on legend items to toggle visibility

Probability of access to the professional classes by socio-economic background, sex and age, controlling for survey year (UK, 2014 to 2016, and 2023 to 2025)
Survey period	Age (years)	Lower working		Higher working		Intermediate		Lower professional		Higher professional
Survey period	Age (years)	Men (%)	Women (%)	Men (%)	Women (%)	Men (%)	Women (%)	Men (%)	Women (%)	Men (%)	Women (%)
2023 to 2025	25	28.1	27.7	35.0	40.9	46.7	40.4	48.9	53.5	60.9	63.1
	26	29.9	29.1	36.9	42.1	48.1	42.0	51.2	55.0	63.0	64.2
	27	31.6	30.4	38.7	43.2	49.4	43.4	53.4	56.3	65.0	65.3
	28	33.3	31.6	40.3	44.2	50.5	44.8	55.3	57.5	66.7	66.1
	29	34.8	32.7	41.9	45.1	51.4	46.0	57.1	58.5	68.3	66.9
	30	36.2	33.7	43.3	45.8	52.2	47.0	58.8	59.4	69.7	67.5
	31	37.5	34.6	44.5	46.4	52.8	48.0	60.2	60.1	70.9	68.0
	32	38.6	35.4	45.6	46.8	53.3	48.7	61.5	60.8	72.0	68.3
	33	39.6	36.1	46.5	47.1	53.6	49.4	62.6	61.2	72.9	68.6
	34	40.4	36.6	47.2	47.3	53.7	49.9	63.5	61.6	73.7	68.7
	35	41.1	37.0	47.8	47.3	53.7	50.3	64.3	61.8	74.3	68.7
	36	41.7	37.3	48.3	47.2	53.5	50.5	65.0	61.8	74.8	68.6
	37	42.0	37.4	48.6	47.0	53.1	50.6	65.4	61.8	75.2	68.3
	38	42.3	37.4	48.7	46.6	52.6	50.5	65.8	61.6	75.4	68.0
	39	42.3	37.3	48.6	46.0	52.0	50.3	65.9	61.3	75.5	67.5
	40	42.2	37.1	48.4	45.4	51.1	50.0	66.0	60.8	75.5	66.9
	41	42.0	36.7	48.1	44.6	50.1	49.5	65.9	60.2	75.4	66.1
	42	41.6	36.2	47.5	43.6	49.0	48.9	65.6	59.5	75.2	65.2
	43	41.0	35.6	46.8	42.5	47.6	48.2	65.2	58.6	74.8	64.2
	44	40.3	34.8	46.0	41.3	46.1	47.3	64.7	57.6	74.3	63.0
2014 to 2016	25	16.7	16.8	26.2	25.1	32.1	29.9	42.5	44.9	50.7	52.1
	26	18.2	18.1	28.1	26.8	34.0	31.7	45.0	47.0	53.2	54.0
	27	19.6	19.4	30.0	28.4	35.7	33.4	47.4	48.9	55.6	55.7
	28	21.0	20.7	31.8	29.9	37.4	35.0	49.7	50.6	57.8	57.2
	29	22.3	21.8	33.5	31.3	39.0	36.4	51.8	52.2	59.8	58.5
	30	23.6	23.0	35.1	32.6	40.4	37.7	53.7	53.5	61.6	59.6
	31	24.8	24.0	36.6	33.7	41.6	38.9	55.4	54.7	63.2	60.5
	32	26.0	24.9	37.9	34.7	42.7	39.9	57.0	55.7	64.6	61.3
	33	27.0	25.7	39.1	35.6	43.7	40.7	58.3	56.6	65.9	61.9
	34	27.9	26.4	40.2	36.3	44.5	41.4	59.6	57.2	67.0	62.3
	35	28.7	26.9	41.1	36.8	45.1	41.9	60.6	57.7	67.9	62.5
	36	29.4	27.3	41.9	37.2	45.6	42.2	61.5	58.0	68.7	62.6
	37	30.0	27.6	42.5	37.4	45.9	42.4	62.2	58.1	69.3	62.5
	38	30.4	27.7	42.9	37.4	46.0	42.4	62.7	58.0	69.8	62.2
	39	30.7	27.7	43.2	37.3	46.0	42.2	63.1	57.8	70.1	61.8
	40	30.8	27.6	43.3	37.0	45.8	41.8	63.4	57.4	70.3	61.2
	41	30.8	27.3	43.3	36.6	45.4	41.3	63.5	56.8	70.4	60.5
	42	30.7	26.9	43.1	36.0	44.9	40.6	63.4	56.1	70.3	59.5
	43	30.4	26.3	42.7	35.2	44.2	39.7	63.2	55.2	70.1	58.4
	44	30.0	25.6	42.2	34.3	43.4	38.6	62.8	54.1	69.7	57.1

Download the data (CSV, 3KB)

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 2016 (combined)
2023 to 2025 (combined)

Geographic area

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

Download the data

Download full dataset (CSV, 81KB)

This file contains the following variables:

Measure code
Measure title
Chart type
Area code
Area type
Area name
Primary split type
Primary split value
Secondary split type
Secondary split value
Tertiary split type
Tertiary split value
Fourth split type
Fourth split value
Time period
Value
Lower confidence interval
Upper confidence interval
Unit

Page history

Publication release date:

29 October 2026

Cookies on GOV.UK State of the Nation