Social Class and life chances

• Elite


  wealth is mostly inherited, earn money from property rather than working
• upper class 


  own or run large businesses, earn very high incomes and often own lot's of property
• middle class 


  highly skilled professionals e.g. doctors - higher than average incomes
• working class 


  lower skilled and lower paid jobs e.g. shop workers
• underclass


  long term unemployed people living in poor areas of high unemployment
• people born into middle & upper classes families are 80%more likely to work in a professional job than children born into a working class family
• people born into middle and upper class families will have higher incomes, be healthier and live longer than people born into the poorest families
• children from the poorest families are over 4x more likely to experience mental health problems than children from the wealthiest backgrounds
• children from upper class and elite backgrounds are much more likely to attend a private school. this means they will get better exam results and mix with other children from elite and upper class backgrounds which helps them to get better jobs as adults