NRS social grade

They were originally developed by the National Readership Survey (NRS) to classify readers, but have since been used by many other organisations for wider applications and have become a standard for market research.

[1] They were developed in the late 1950s and refined in following years and achieved widespread usage in 20th century Britain.

[3] The distinguishing feature of the NRS social grade is that it is based on occupation, rather than income, wealth or property ownership.

[5] Only around 2% of the UK population identifies as upper class,[6] and this group is not separated by the classification scheme.

The grading system is also sometimes used in the Republic of Ireland with the addition of a Class F signifying Farmers and Agricultural Workers.