Occupational level of young people aged 25 to 29 years

Data on the occupational class people are in at 25 to 29 years old, by socio-economic background.

Summary main findings

In 2021, 27% of 25 to 29 year olds from a higher professional-class background were in a higher professional occupation. This was nearly 3 times the percentage for people from a lower working class background in a higher professional occupation (10%).

Data for 2014 to 2021 combined shows that:

• young women were less likely to be in higher professional occupations than young men from the same socio-economic background – for example, 20% of young women and 28% of young men from higher professional backgrounds were in higher professional occupations
• young people with Indian and Chinese ethnic backgrounds had higher chances of being in a professional occupation than young people from similar socio-economic backgrounds – the chances of young people with Pakistani ethnic backgrounds were lower
• disabled young people were more likely to be in a lower working class occupation than non-disabled young people from the same socio-economic background

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By socio-economic background

Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds in different occupational levels, by socio-economic background (UK, 2021)

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Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds in different occupational levels, by socio-economic background (UK, 2021)

Young people’s socio-economic background is shown in rows, occupational level is in columns

Socio-economic background	Lower working (%)	Higher working (%)	Intermediate (%)	Lower professional (%)	Higher professional (%)
Higher professional	13.0	8.5	17.1	34.7	26.8
Lower professional	14.8	13.6	21.6	28.7	21.4
Intermediate	20.6	14.1	21.4	25.9	18.0
Higher working	22.5	21.9	16.8	26.0	12.7
Lower working	31.7	22.5	18.7	17.4	9.6
All backgrounds	20.1	15.6	19.4	26.8	18.2

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By area

Percentage point difference in the likelihood of being in a higher professional occupation at 25 to 29 years old, compared to the national average (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

41 regions in the UK are ranked from the lowest to highest percentage point difference compared to the national average. They are then divided into 5 equally-sized groups (‘quintiles’), from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest).

The regional estimates have a large margin of error – do not rank or compare specific regions.

The lines either side of the dots represent confidence intervals – the range of values that the 'true' value for each region is highly likely to be within. In many cases the confidence intervals overlap. This suggests differences between specific regions may not be statistically significant.

See the composite indices for more precise estimates and to understand overall regional patterns.

Q1 - Lowest 20%

Q5 - Highest 20%

Percentage point difference in the likelihood of being in a higher professional occupation at 25 to 29 years old, compared to the national average (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

Region	Difference compared to average
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire	21.1
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire	-0.1
Cheshire	-2.3
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly	-8.6
Cumbria	6.8
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire	3.2
Devon	-2.1
Dorset and Somerset	16.1
East Anglia	-1.5
East Wales	2.9
East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire	-1.3
Eastern Scotland	-27.5
Essex	-1.7
Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath/Bristol area	-5.9
Greater Manchester	11.1
Hampshire and Isle of Wight	8.7
Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire	-1.5
Highlands and Islands	-2.6
Inner London - East	0.9
Inner London - West	8.6
Kent	-8.1
Lancashire	-13.2
Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire	0.9
Lincolnshire	-23.6
Merseyside	-15.9
North Eastern Scotland	0.7
North Yorkshire	0.9
Northern Ireland	12.9
Northumberland and Tyne and Wear	-4.2
Outer London - East and North East	21.0
Outer London - South	0.6
Outer London - West and North West	2.5
Shropshire and Staffordshire	-11.4
South Yorkshire	-2.3
Southern Scotland	-15.8
Surrey, East and West Sussex	43.9
Tees Valley and Durham	-10.3
West Central Scotland	-1.3
West Midlands	-2.6
West Wales and The Valleys	-3.5
West Yorkshire	4.6

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By sex

Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds in different occupational levels, by socio-economic background and sex (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

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Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds in different occupational levels, by socio-economic background and sex (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

Young people’s socio-economic background is shown in rows, occupational level is in columns

Socio-economic background	Sex	Lower working (%)	Higher working (%)	Intermediate (%)	Lower professional (%)	Higher professional (%)
Higher professional	Men	13.4	12.7	15.6	30.8	27.6
	Women	11.2	11.5	20.2	37.1	20.0
Lower professional	Men	14.5	17.4	18.7	28.5	20.9
	Women	14.1	15.1	21.2	35.2	14.5
Intermediate	Men	18.2	22.2	21.2	23.2	15.2
	Women	19.1	19.3	24.0	28.6	9.0
Higher working	Men	21.9	28.1	17.2	20.9	11.9
	Women	19.1	25.6	21.9	26.3	7.1
Lower working	Men	32.2	28.3	16.9	15.4	7.3
	Women	28.9	26.7	21.2	18.7	4.5

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By ethnicity

Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds in a professional occupation, by ethnicity and socio-economic background (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

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Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds in a professional occupation, by ethnicity and socio-economic background (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

Ethnicity	Lower working (%)	Higher professional (%)
Bangladeshi	18.8	51.9
Chinese	29.3	65.9
Indian	29.9	66.5
Pakistani	16.7	48.3
Black African	22.2	57.1
Black Caribbean	25.0	60.9
Mixed	27.6	64.0
White British	23.9	59.4
White other	19.4	52.8
Other	20.4	54.4

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By disability status

Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds in different occupational levels, by socio-economic background and disability status (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

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Percentage of 25 to 29 year olds in different occupational levels, by socio-economic background and disability status (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

Young people’s socio-economic background is shown in rows, occupational level is in columns

Socio-economic background	Disabled	Lower working (%)	Higher working (%)	Intermediate (%)	Lower professional (%)	Higher professional (%)
Higher professional	Yes	21.4	14.5	20.3	26.2	17.7
	No	11.1	11.8	17.5	34.8	24.7
Lower professional	Yes	27.1	18.2	19.2	25.9	9.6
	No	12.4	16.0	20.1	32.7	18.9
Intermediate	Yes	30.8	24.1	20.7	18.1	6.4
	No	16.7	20.4	22.9	27.0	13.1
Higher working	Yes	35.0	26.4	16.5	16.8	5.3
	No	18.1	27.0	20.1	24.6	10.3
Lower working	Yes	46.8	24.5	16.1	9.8	2.8
	No	26.3	28.2	19.8	19.0	6.7

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About the data

Data source

Office for National Statistics, Labour Force Survey (LFS), 2021

Time period

2014 to 2021 (combined)

Geographic area

UK

What the data measures

The data shows the occupation level of 25 to 29 year olds in the UK, by socio-economic background.

We use the following 5 categories of socio-economic background and occupational level:

• higher professional and managerial
• lower professional and managerial
• intermediate
• higher working class
• lower working class

These are based on the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (‘NS-SEC’), set by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Things you need to know

Data is weighted using LFS probability weights.

For data by ethnicity, the data shows whether young people are in a professional occupation (either higher or lower professional), and percentages are shown only for people from lower working class and higher professional class backgrounds. This is because the number of people surveyed was too small to measure all socio-economic backgrounds and occupation levels reliably. The estimated percentages are those for men.

For data by disability status, respondents were asked if they had a health condition or illness lasting 12 months or more, and if that condition reduced their ability to carry out day-to-day activities. This is consistent with the definition of disability in the Equality Act 2010.

The error bars show 95% confidence intervals. These intervals show where we expect the true value from a population to be 95% of the time. For example, a confidence interval with the range of values from 5 to 10 implies that there is a 95% chance that the true population value is between 5 and 10, and a 5% chance that it is outside of this range. The narrower the confidence interval or range, the more precise the estimate. Read more about confidence intervals

Type of data

Survey data

Full report

Read more in State of the Nation 2023 on GOV.UK.

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Download the data

Download full dataset (CSV, 42KB)

This file contains the following variables:

• Indicator code
• Indicator name
• Area code
• Area name
• Area type
• Age
• Socio-economic background
• Category type
• Category
• Value
• Lower confidence interval
• Upper confidence interval
• Standard error
• Sample size
• Time period
• Unit
• Sex
• Category type2
• Category2

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