Title: Social class in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia
Headings: Social class in the United Kingdom
Social class in the United Kingdom
Contents
History
Formal classifications
Early modern
20th century
21st century
Great British Class Survey
Results
Elite
Established middle class
Technical middle class
New affluent workers
Traditional working class
Emergent service sector
Precariat
Informal classifications and stereotypes
Underclass
Working class
Unskilled and semi-skilled working class
Skilled working class
Middle class
Lower middle class
Middle class
Upper middle class
Upper class
Accent and language and social class
Received Pronunciation
U and non-U
English regional dialect
Heraldry and social class
Criticisms
See also
UK social stereotypes
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links

Content: Opportunities resulting from consistent economic growth and the expanding British Empire also enabled some from much poorer backgrounds (generally men who had managed to acquire some education) to rise through the class system. The historian David Cannadine sees the period around 1880 as a peak after which the position of the old powerful families declined rapidly, from a number of causes, reaching a nadir in the years after World War II, symbolised by the widespread destruction of country houses. However their wealth, if not their political power, has rebounded strongly since the 1980s, benefiting from greatly increased values of the land and fine art which many owned in quantity. Meanwhile, the complex British middle classes had also been enjoying a long period of growth and increasing prosperity, and achieving political power at the national level to a degree unusual in Europe. They avoided the strict stratification of many Continental middle classes, and formed a large and amorphous group closely connected at their edges with both the gentry and aristocracy and the labouring classes. In particular the great financial centre of the City of London was open to outsiders to an unusual degree, and continually expanding and creating new employment. The British working class, on the other hand, was not notable in Europe for prosperity, and early modern British travellers often remarked on the high standard of living of the farmworkers and artisans of the Netherlands, though the peasantry in other countries such as France were remarked on as poorer than their English equivalents. Living standards certainly improved greatly over the period, more so in England than other parts of the United Kingdom, but the Industrial Revolution was marked by extremely harsh working conditions and poor housing until about the middle of the 19th century. Formal classifications
Early modern
At the time of the formation of Great Britain in 1707, England and Scotland had similar class-based social structures. Some basic categories covering most of the British population around 1500 to 1700 are as follows.