Relative educational mobility
Published: 12 September 2023
Data on how the education level of people in the UK compares to their parents’ education level.
Summary main findings
Between 1991 and 2020, relative educational mobility went up for people aged 28 to 37 years. This means that people’s chances of getting a degree became less related to whether their parents had a degree or not.
There was a higher level of relative educational mobility among men than women.
Relative educational mobility was similar:
- across all ethnic groups in the UK
- for people with or without a long-term illness or disability
Relative educational mobility was greater in Scotland, but did not vary significantly across other parts of the UK.
By year
Visualisation
Parent:child odds ratios relating to university degrees, respondents aged 28 to 37 years (UK, 1991 to 2020)
Data
| Year | Parent:child odds ratio |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 4.0 |
| 2011 | 7.3 |
| 2001 | 7.8 |
| 1991 | 9.8 |
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By area
Visualisation
Parent:child odds ratios relating to university degrees, respondents aged 25 to 64 years, by area (UK, 2020)
Data
| Region | Parent:child odds ratio |
|---|---|
| Yorkshire & Humberside | 5.59 |
| East of England | 5.51 |
| West Midlands | 4.46 |
| North East | 4.44 |
| South West | 4.41 |
| London | 4.10 |
| North West | 3.95 |
| South East | 3.85 |
| Wales | 3.76 |
| East Midlands | 3.18 |
| Scotland | 3.13 |
| Northern Ireland | 3.08 |
| Average for all regions | 4.35 |
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For the full download file, see Download the data.
By sex
Visualisation
Parent:child odds ratios relating to university degrees, respondents aged 25 to 64 years, by sex (UK, 2020)
Data
| Sex | Parent:child odds ratio |
|---|---|
| Men | 3.86 |
| Women | 4.86 |
| All | 4.36 |
Download
For the full download file, see Download the data.
By ethnicity
Visualisation
Parent:child odds ratios relating to university degrees, respondents aged 25 to 64 years, by ethnicity (UK, 2020)
Data
| Ethnicity | Parent:child odds ratio |
|---|---|
| Bangladeshi | 4.58 |
| Chinese | No data |
| Indian | 4.17 |
| Pakistani | 4.29 |
| Black African | 4.83 |
| Black Caribbean | 2.90 |
| Mixed | 4.72 |
| White British | 4.18 |
| White Other | 3.60 |
| Other | 4.85 |
Download
For the full download file, see Download the data.
By disability status
Visualisation
Parent:child odds ratios relating to university degrees, respondents aged 25 to 64 years, by disability status (UK, 2020)
Data
| Disabled | Parent:child odds ratio |
|---|---|
| No | 4.07 |
| Yes | 4.30 |
| All | 4.33 |
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For the full download file, see Download the data.
About the data
Data source
UK Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS)
Time period
1991 to 2020
Geographic area
UK
What the data measures
The data measures relative educational mobility among 25 to 64 year olds in the UK.
It shows the link between parents’ and children’s education level by sex, ethnicity, disability status and area.
For this data, education is used as a binary measure of attainment of an undergraduate degree qualification versus not.
A higher odds ratio means a greater link between parents’ and children’s education levels (‘intergenerational persistence’), while a lower odds ratio means greater relative mobility.
Things you need to know
Formal modelling of the data with logistic regression shows that:
- the odds ratios for men and women are significantly different from each other
- the odds ratios for the different ethnic groups are not significantly different from each other
- the odds ratio for Scotland is significantly lower
Odds ratios for the Chinese ethnic group could not be calculated due to the small sample size.
For data by disability status, respondents were asked if they had a physical or mental impairment, illness or disability for at least 12 months. This is different from Labour Force Survey data, which specifies that the condition should be both long-term and limiting. We do not know how long respondents had the illness or disability, and it is possible that they completed their education before the illness or disability occurred. Because of this, the data is likely to underestimate the effects of disability.
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, weighted using the UKHLS population weights
Full report
State of the Nation 2024 does not include updates to this page.
Read more about mobility outcomes in State of the Nation 2023 on GOV.UK.
Download the data
Download full dataset (CSV, 4KB)
This file contains the following variables:
- Indicator code
- Indicator name
- Area type
- Area name
- Time period
- Age
- Sex
- Category type
- Category
- Value
- Lower confidence interval
- Upper confidence interval
- Unit
Page history
Publication release date:
12 September 2023