Absolute occupational mobility
Published:
29 October 2026
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Data on upward and downward occupational mobility – having a different occupational class from your parents.
The longitudinal data gives us a stronger picture of the change over time. The other dataset provides rich breakdowns by protected characteristics.
Summary main findings
Longitudinal data (1971 to 2021)
According to the ONS Longitudinal Study (ONS-LS), there is more upward occupational mobility (being in a higher occupational class than your parents) than downward occupational mobility for both men and women across England and Wales. This is due to a long-term increase in professional and managerial jobs since 1971.
The chances of both men and women from working class backgrounds achieving a professional job (‘long-range upward mobility’) went up substantially between 1991 and 2011. It continued at a slower rate between 2011 and 2021. Between 1991 and 2021, the percentage of early-career adults (aged 28 to 37 years) who experienced long-range occupational mobility went up from:
- 25% to 36% for men
- 20% to 38% for women
After having lower rates of long-range upward occupational mobility than men, women now have higher rates.
For mid-career adults (aged 38 to 47 years), upward mobility rates went up as people progressed in their careers. For example, the percentage of men who experienced long-range upward mobility was:
- 25% in their early career (1991)
- 34% in mid-career (2001)
Downward mobility for people from professional backgrounds was low for both men and women:
- for men in their early career, the rate varied around 20% with no clear historical trend
- for women, downward mobility from the professional class declined in the early-career and the mid-career groups, the drop was larger for mid-career women, falling by 9 points between the 2001 and 2021 censuses
- for men in their mid career, the rate went down by 3 percentage points between 2001 and 2021
Other data (2014 to 2022)
According to findings from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), data for 2018 to 2022 combined shows that:
- 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
- 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
Data for 2014 to 2022 combined shows that:
- 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
- disabled people were much less likely to experience long-range upward mobility than the population as a whole, and much more likely to experience downward mobility
- disabled people from all socio-economic backgrounds were much less likely to enter the professional classes
By year (long-range mobility)
Visualisation
Percentages of people experiencing long-range occupational mobility (upward and downward), by age group, sex and Census year (England and Wales, 1991 to 2021)
Click or tap on legend items to toggle visibility
Data
| Mobility direction | Year | Men | Women | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aged 28 to 37 (%) | Aged 38 to 47 (%) | Aged 28 to 37 (%) | Aged 38 to 47 (%) | ||
| Downward | 2021 | 20.0 | 15.2 | 15.4 | 12.9 |
| 2011 | 18.0 | 18.3 | 14.3 | 17.0 | |
| 2001 | 21.9 | 18.4 | 22.1 | 22.2 | |
| 1991 | 20.2 | No data | 22.1 | No data | |
| Upward | 2021 | 35.6 | 39.2 | 38.5 | 40.8 |
| 2011 | 34.4 | 33.3 | 35.9 | 31.5 | |
| 2001 | 33.0 | 34.2 | 29.7 | 28.0 | |
| 1991 | 24.6 | No data | 19.8 | No data | |
Download
For the full download file, see Download the data.
By area
Visualisation
Percentage of 25 to 64 year olds who experienced long-range upward and downward mobility, by region (LFS, 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.
Data
| 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 the full download file, see Download the data.
By occupational class and sex
Visualisation
Percentages of people aged 25 to 64 years in each occupational class, by socio-economic background and sex (LFS, UK, 2022)
Click or tap on legend items to toggle visibility
Data
| 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 the full download file, see Download the data.
By ethnicity
Visualisation
Percentage of people aged 25 to 64 years experiencing upward and downward mobility, by ethnic group (LFS, UK, 2014 to 2022 combined)
Click or tap on legend items to toggle visibility
Data
| 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 the full download file, see Download the data.
By disability status
Visualisation
Percentage of people aged 25 to 64 years experiencing upward and downward mobility, by disability status (LFS, UK, 2014 to 2022 combined))
Click or tap on legend items to toggle visibility
Data
| 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 the full download file, see Download the data.
About the data
Data sources(s)
- Longitudinal Study
- Labour Force Survey
Time period
- Longitudinal Study (1971 to 2021)
- Labour Force Survey (2014 to 2022)
Geographic area
- Longitudinal Study: England and Wales
- Labour Force Survey: United Kingdom
What the data measures
Longitudinal data
Absolute long-range upward mobility is defined as the conditional probability of making the transition from a working-class parental family to a professional-class occupation in adulthood.
Absolute long-range downward mobility is defined as the conditional probability of making the transition from a professional-class parental family to a working-class occupation in adulthood.
People’s socio-economic background in this data uses a measure consisting of 3 broad classes:
- professional class
- intermediate class
- working class
‘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.
Other data (using the Labour Force Survey)
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
The error bars show 95% confidence intervals. Read more about confidence intervals.
Longitudinal Study
The census does not directly measure people’s social backgrounds. It links censuses in the ONS-LS to identify people’s families in an earlier census when they were growing up and still living at home. This is done for specific birth cohorts. For example, early-career adults were aged 28 to 37 at the time of the destination census and have been linked with data for their parents from the census 20 years earlier. Mid-career adults were aged 38 to 47 and have been linked with data for their parents from the census 30 years earlier. See the technical annex for further details.
While the ONS-LS achieved high levels of linkage across censuses, this method means that recent migrants who were not living in England or Wales in the relevant earlier census cannot be linked. Recent migrants from countries outside England and Wales are therefore excluded.
The class categories are based on the ONS NS-SEC analytical social classes which were developed for the 2001 Census. The questions asked in the census about occupation, and their coding, differ across the relevant censuses.
The ONS states that the categories of NS-SEC are not strictly comparable over time. This is because they come from a detailed list of occupations that is revised every 10 years in order to reflect developments in the labour market, such as new types of occupation. We have grouped the analytical classes into 3 broad classes in order to reduce the risk of discontinuities. See section 3.4 of our technical annex.
Future analysis for State of the Nation will use the ONS-LS to analyse results by ethnic group and disability status.
Recent data (using the Labour Force Survey)
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.
Type of data
Longitudinal Study: admin data
Labour Force Survey: survey data
Full report
Read more about the Longitudinal Study mobility analysis in State of the Nation 2026 on GOV.UK.
Read more about Labour Force Survey mobility analysis in State of the Nation 2023 on GOV.UK.
Download the data
Longitudinal Study: download full dataset (CSV, 82KB)
Labour Force Survey: download full dataset (CSV, 82KB)
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
The new dataset
Download full dataset (CSV, 9KB)
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
- Value
- Sample size
- Lower confidence interval
- Upper confidence interval
- Standard error
- Unit
- Value note
The old dataset
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
Page history
Publication release date:
29 October 2026