Absolute occupational mobility

Data on upward and downward occupational mobility – having a different occupational class from your parents.

  1. Summary main findings
  2. By decade of birth (upward and downward mobility)
  3. By decade of birth (long-range mobility)
  4. By area
  5. By occupational class and sex
  6. By ethnicity
  7. By disability status
  8. About the data
  9. Download the data

Summary main findings

There is more upward than downward occupational mobility for both men and women.

The chances of both men and women from working-class backgrounds getting a professional job improved greatly over the 20th century.

Data from 2022 shows that 70% of people from lower working class backgrounds experienced upward mobility, and 32% experienced long-range upward mobility to the professional classes. 18% of people from higher professional backgrounds experienced long-range downward mobility into the working classes.

People who grew up in the south-east had the best upward occupational mobility rates, and people who grew up in the north and the south-west had the worst.

People who grew up in Outer London or Surrey and Sussex had the greatest likelihood of long-range upward mobility from the working classes to the professional classes. People who grew up in Cornwall, East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, and the Highlands had lower rates of long-range upward mobility or higher rates of long-range downward mobility.

Women’s chances of being in the higher-professional class were poorer than the chances of men from the same socio-economic background. Women were also more likely to experience long-range downward mobility than men. For example, 12% of women and 9% of men from higher-professional backgrounds were in lower working class jobs.

People with Indian and Chinese ethnic backgrounds had a greater likelihood of long-range upward mobility than other ethnic groups. People from Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnic backgrounds had the highest rates of long-range downward mobility.

People with a disability or long-term limiting condition have a much lower likelihood of long-range upward mobility and much higher chances of downward mobility than the population as a whole. Disabled people from all socio-economic backgrounds were also much less likely to enter the professional classes.

By decade of birth (upward and downward mobility)

Visualisation for by decade of birth (upward and downward mobility)

Percentages of people experiencing occupational mobility (upward, downward, and total), by birth cohort (UK, 1910 to 1999)

Use the radio buttons to choose a dataset to view

Click or tap on legend items to toggle visibility

Data for by decade of birth (upward and downward mobility)

Percentages of people experiencing occupational mobility (upward, downward, and total), by birth cohort (UK, 1910 to 1999)
Decade of birth Upward Downward Total
Men (%) Women (%) Men (%) Women (%) Men (%) Women (%)
1990 to 1999 32.6 34.9 28.8 27.2 61.4 62.2
1980 to 1989 34.1 38.5 26.6 25.4 60.7 63.9
1970 to 1979 37.6 40.6 24.8 24.9 62.4 65.4
1960 to 1969 38.9 43.4 25.6 25.3 64.5 68.7
1950 to 1959 41.2 44.7 24.2 26.6 65.4 71.3
1940 to 1949 42.0 42.9 21.6 30.9 63.6 73.8
1930 to 1939 41.6 41.9 21.7 31.9 63.3 73.8
1920 to 1929 36.7 35.8 24.7 37.9 61.4 73.7
1910 to 1919 34.3 29.8 27.5 42.4 61.9 72.1

Download for by decade of birth (upward and downward mobility)

For the full download file, see Download the data.

By decade of birth (long-range mobility)

Visualisation for by decade of birth (long-range mobility)

Percentages of people experiencing long-range occupational mobility (upward and downward), by birth cohort (UK, 1910 to 1999)

Use the radio buttons to choose a dataset to view

Click or tap on legend items to toggle visibility

Data for by decade of birth (long-range mobility)

Percentages of people experiencing long-range occupational mobility (upward and downward), by birth cohort (UK, 1910 to 1999)
Decade of birth Long-range upward Long-range downward
Men (%) Women (%) Men (%) Women (%)
1990 to 1999 34.6 36.9 20.8 17.0
1980 to 1989 36.2 38.4 18.7 16.0
1970 to 1979 39.9 38.7 15.7 14.8
1960 to 1969 34.7 33.5 18.5 16.9
1950 to 1959 30.4 26.7 20.2 17.6
1940 to 1949 26.2 18.3 19.9 19.4
1930 to 1939 22.8 15.2 22.8 19.4
1920 to 1929 18.1 9.3 27.9 23.0
1910 to 1919 14.4 8.0 29.6 25.8

Download for by decade of birth (long-range mobility)

For the full download file, see Download the data.

By area

Visualisation for by area

Percentage of 25 to 64 year olds who experienced long-range upward and downward mobility, by region (UK, 2018 to 2022 combined)

41 regions in the UK are ranked from the lowest to highest percentages. 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.

Use the radio buttons to choose a dataset to view

Q1 - Lowest 20%
Q5 - Highest 20%

Data for by area

Percentage of 25 to 64 year olds who experienced long-range upward and downward mobility, by region (UK, 2018 to 2022 combined)
Region Long-range upward mobility (%) Long-range downward mobility (%)
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 39.5 16.8
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire 37.4 17.0
Cheshire 38.3 16.4
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly 31.4 25.8
Cumbria 33.2 24.2
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire 32.0 21.4
Devon 34.8 22.4
Dorset and Somerset 36.7 17.8
East Anglia 33.9 18.4
East Wales 36.3 22.8
East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire 29.4 23.4
Eastern Scotland 35.0 21.6
Essex 37.5 19.4
Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath/Bristol area 33.7 19.7
Greater Manchester 34.5 21.2
Hampshire and Isle of Wight 38.3 20.4
Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire 37.4 19.1
Highlands and Islands 35.5 30.0
Inner London - East 37.0 18.9
Inner London - West 37.5 16.2
Kent 37.8 19.9
Lancashire 35.5 22.0
Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire 38.0 20.2
Lincolnshire 31.4 21.8
Merseyside 34.0 23.1
North Eastern Scotland 31.3 24.9
North Yorkshire 32.8 21.5
Northern Ireland 28.2 21.9
Northumberland and Tyne and Wear 29.9 23.5
Outer London - East and North East 40.6 18.5
Outer London - South 38.8 16.1
Outer London - West and North West 45.7 16.4
Shropshire and Staffordshire 33.8 20.2
South Yorkshire 34.0 21.8
Southern Scotland 31.8 24.2
Surrey, East and West Sussex 39.7 17.3
Tees Valley and Durham 32.8 21.7
West Central Scotland 30.8 25.4
West Midlands 34.5 22.6
West Wales and The Valleys 34.2 23.0
West Yorkshire 32.4 22.3

Download for by area

For the full download file, see Download the data.

By occupational class and sex

Visualisation for by occupational class and sex

Percentages of people aged 25 to 64 years in each occupational class, by socio-economic background and sex (UK, 2022)

Click or tap on legend items to toggle visibility

Data for by occupational class and sex

Percentages of people aged 25 to 64 years in each occupational class, by socio-economic background and sex (UK, 2022)
Socio-economic background Sex Lower working (%) Higher working (%) Intermediate (%) Lower professional (%) Higher professional (%)
Higher professional Men 9.4 6.7 14.6 29.1 40.2
Women 12.1 8.0 18.9 34.3 26.6
Total 10.7 7.4 16.8 31.7 33.5
Lower professional Men 13.6 9.3 16.6 31.0 29.5
Women 14.4 9.1 21.1 34.5 20.9
Total 14.0 9.2 18.8 32.8 25.2
Intermediate Men 16.9 11.6 21.4 24.7 25.3
Women 20.7 12.8 23.5 28.9 14.1
Total 18.8 12.2 22.5 26.8 19.6
Higher working Men 22.9 17.3 19.2 22.7 17.9
Women 22.8 15.2 24.3 27.9 9.9
Total 22.8 16.2 21.8 25.4 13.8
Lower working Men 30.7 17.4 17.9 19.7 14.3
Women 29.7 17.3 22.6 22.6 7.8
Total 30.2 17.4 20.3 21.2 10.9
All backgrounds Total 19.4 12.5 20.2 27.5 20.5

Download for by occupational class and sex

For the full download file, see Download the data.

By ethnicity

Visualisation for by ethnicity

Percentage of people aged 25 to 64 years experiencing upward and downward mobility, by ethnic group (UK, 2014 to 2022 combined)

Click or tap on legend items to toggle visibility

Data for by ethnicity

Percentage of people aged 25 to 64 years experiencing upward and downward mobility, by ethnic group (UK, 2014 to 2022 combined)
Ethnicity Long-range upward mobility (%) Long-range downward mobility (%)
Bangladeshi 23.1 45.3
Chinese 45.7 25.3
Indian 43.8 19.5
Pakistani 24.8 40.3
Black African 30.5 36.5
Black Caribbean 34.7 31.1
Mixed 33.7 23.6
White British 33.0 20.9
White other 29.4 22.0
Other 29.0 34.3

Download for by ethnicity

For the full download file, see Download the data.

By disability status

Visualisation for by disability status

Percentage of people aged 25 to 64 years experiencing upward and downward mobility, by disability status (UK, 2014 to 2022 combined)

Click or tap on legend items to toggle visibility

Data for by disability status

Percentage of people aged 25 to 64 years experiencing upward and downward mobility, by disability status (UK, 2014 to 2022 combined)
Socio-economic background Disabled Lower working (%) Higher working (%) Intermediate (%) Lower professional (%) Higher professional (%)
Higher professional Yes 27.4 11.2 21.0 23.9 16.5
No 8.3 7.1 17.2 32.8 34.7
Lower professional Yes 32.6 12.1 19.0 24.9 11.3
No 9.9 8.3 19.9 34.4 27.4
Intermediate Yes 37.5 12.6 21.3 19.5 9.1
No 13.1 11.7 24.7 29.0 21.5
Higher working Yes 42.0 14.6 18.3 17.2 7.8
No 16.0 16.6 23.4 28.4 15.6
Lower working Yes 52.1 15.6 16.0 12.9 3.4
No 20.6 17.9 22.9 24.6 14.1

Download for by disability status

For the full download file, see Download the data.

About the data

Data sources

  • The General Household Survey (1972 to 2005)
  • British Household Panel Survey (1991 to 2009)
  • Taking Part Survey (2005 to 2006)
  • Understanding Society (2010 to 2019)
  • Labour Force Survey (2014 to 2022)

Time period

1972 to 2022

Geographic area

UK

What the data measures

The data shows changes in absolute occupational mobility – the extent to which your occupational class is related to your parents’ occupational class.

People’s socio-economic background in this data is based on the occupation of the main earner in their household when they were 14 years old. We use 5 categories:

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

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

‘Short range’ occupational mobility means moving between the intermediate category and either professional or working class occupations.

‘Long range’ occupational mobility means moving between working class and professional occupations.

Things you need to know

High levels of absolute occupational mobility can be due to both downward and upward mobility.

The figures for total mobility are the sum of the percentages of upward and downward mobility. This represents the percentage of the sample as a whole who were in a different social class position from the one in which they were brought up.

For data on mobility by year of birth (‘birth cohort studies’), the most recent cohorts are still early in their working lives as they were born between 1990 and 1999. The chances of people moving into the professional classes increases from 25 to 35 years old, and slows in their late 30s and early 40s.

The data used is weighted using the LFS probability weights.

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.

Download the data

Download full dataset (CSV, 83KB)

This file contains the following variables:

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

This is a new website - your feedback will help us to improve it.