Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The purpose of this survey was to enquire into patterns of social mobility in England and Wales.
Main Topics:

Variables
Detailed information was collected on (i) the occupations held by respondents at various stages in their working lives and their associated employment status and industry; (ii) their education and all forms of occupationally relevant training; (iii) their formal qualifications; and (iv) to a more limited extent, the occupations, training, and qualifications of various of their kin. Questions were also included on respondents' areas of residence, current income, friendship patterns, political affiliations, etc.
In order to construct a data set which would permit the investigation of trends in social mobility between 1972 and 1983, an extensive recoding excercise was undertaken. This involved the recoding of data for approximately one in six (N=1522) of respondents to the 1972 survey for whom information on both their present and their fathers' occupation was available. This information, which was originally coded to the 1970 OPCS system of occupational classification was recoded to the 1980 OPCS system. These data have now been merged with the main survey (although they can be supplied as a separate file).
Occupational data from the British Election Study, 1983 (SN:2005) were recoded so as to become comparable with these data. It was hoped that the 'splicing' of the two studies would enable researchers to gain a clear idea of how mobility rates and patterns have changed in Britain over recent decades.