This dataset provides 2011 Census estimates that classify usual residents aged 16 to 64 living in households in England and Wales by approximated social grade, by sex and by age. The estimates are as at census day, 27 March 2011.

Social grade is the socio-economic classification used by the market research and marketing industries, most often in the analysis of spending habits and consumer attitudes. Although it is not possible to allocate social grade precisely from information collected by the 2011 Census, the Market Research Society has developed a method for using census information to provide a good approximation of social grade.

In order to protect against disclosure of personal information from the 2011 Census, there has been swapping of records in the Census database between different geographic areas, and so some counts will be affected. In the main, the greatest effects will be at the lowest geographies, since the record swapping is targeted towards those households with unusual characteristics in small areas.

More details on the ONS Census disclosure control strategy may be found on the Statistical Disclosure Control page on the ONS web site.