National Statistics Socio-economic Classification

The National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (often abbreviated to NS-SEC) is the primary social classification in the United Kingdom. It was adapted from the Nuffield class schema developed in the 1970s. Its first major use was on the 2001 UK census. The classification replaced two previous social classifications: Socio-economic Groups and Social Class based on Occupation.

The full version of NS-SEC has 17 main categories and is collapsible down to three categories. Only the three-category version is intended to represent any form of hierarchy. The version intended for most users (the analytic version) has eight categories:

The three-category version is reduced to following categories:

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