Social Class Scale for Population Studies in Ireland

Description

A social class scale can be used to assign a person to the relevant category during a census or other population study. A person's social status can affect a person's health status both in the exposure risks and the resources available for maintaining health.

Groups:

(1) professional or commercial

(2) farmer or agricultural

Professional or Commercial	Class
higher professional, higher managerial, proprietors	I
lower professional, lower managerial	II
other non-manual workers	III
skilled manual workers	IV
semi-skilled manual workers	V
unskilled manual workers	VI

Farmer or Agricultural	Class
farmer with >= 200 acres	I
farmer with 100 – 199 acres	II
farmer with 50 – 99 acres	III
farmer with 30 – 49 acres	IV
farmer with < 30 acres	V
unskilled manual farm labor	VI

Limitations:

• I think there is need for 2 additional classes – one for the fabulously wealthy and/or powerful at the upper end of the scale, and one for the homeless and unemployed.

• A housewife who works in the home and domestic laborers may not fit into this system.

• Maritime workers and fishermen are not specifically identified, but could be modeled as follows:

Maritime (for example)	Class
captain or higher officers of a large ship	I
lower officers of a large ship, or captain of a smaller ship	II
other officers on a commercial ship	III
fisherman with a moderate size boat	IV
fisherman with a small boat	V
unskilled manual seaman	VI

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Description

Specialty

ICD-10