Socioeconomic Status

Definition of Socioeconomic Status

The Canada social science dictionary [1] provides the following meaning of Socioeconomic Status: A term which is often contrasted with that of social class. Socioeconomic status, largely an American usage, has developed as a way to operationalize or measure social class on the assumptions that class groupings are not real groups. It is a rather arbitrary category and is developed by combining the position or score of persons on criteria such as income, amount of education, type of occupation held, or neighborhood of residence. The scores can then be arbitrarily divided so as to create divisions such as upper class, middle class, lower class. Sociologists are interested in socioeconomic status, as they are in class, since it is assumed that this status affects life chances in numerous ways. See: CLASS in this legal dictionary and in the world encyclopedia of law.

Socioeconomic Status: Resources

Notes and References

• Drislane, R., & Parkinson, G. (2016). (Concept of) Socioeconomic Status. Online dictionary of the social sciences. Open University of Canada