Three new occupational status indices for England and Wales, 1800–1939

Abstract

Using 1.6 m marriages, 1837–1939, and a genealogy of 428,000 people 1600–2022, we estimate three new occupational status indices for England 1800–1939. The first, CCC-HISCO, re-estimates the HISCAM-GB index, using 30 times as much data. The second, CCC, uses the same association methodology behind HISCAM to assign status but employs richer occupation classifications than in HISCO-GB. The third, CCC2, links this richer set of occupations to measures of education and wealth, using principal component analysis. The close correlation between the CCC and CCC2 indices shows the HISCAM methodology generates occupational status indices, rather than just social proximity measures. All three new indices perform better than existing HISCAM indices, by the metric of father-son status correlation. They all imply less social mobility 1800–1939 than current indices.