Social classes are used to divide people into different groups according to one or more criteria, such as wealth, income, occupation or a combination of these. There are different ways of classifying people, so when using the concept you should make it clear which definition you are using. The criteria mentioned above are objective criteria — that is, they are externally measured. However, social class also has a subjective dimension, meaning that people can usually place themselves in a particular social class group, which may or may not be the same as their objective social class.
Social class is important because if we take objective measures of social class, we can see that there are measurable and important differences between people in different class groups, in terms of educational achievement, health, life expectancy and so on. If we look at subjective measures of class, we can often see differences in the beliefs and behaviours of those in different groups, for example in terms of attitudes towards issues such as immigration, or in their voting behaviour and support for a particular political party.
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