In order to provide researchers with more tangible insight into the types of individuals to be encountered, in each of the Social Grade categories a brief description of each category has been compiled:

A ‘well educated top managers and professionals': well-educated top to middle level managers with responsibility for more extensive personnel, well-educated independent or self-employed professional people;

B ‘middle managers': well educated non-manual employees, skilled workers and business owners, smaller middle level managers; well educated non-manual employees, supervisors/skilled manual workers and small business owners; less well educated managers;

C1 ‘well educated non-manual employees, skilled workers and business owners': smaller middle level managers; well educated non-manual employees, supervisors/skilled manual workers and small business owners; less well educate managers;

C2 ‘skilled workers and non-manual employees': better educated supervisors/skilled manual workers; moderately well educated non-manual employees and small business owners;

D ‘skilled and unskilled manual workers and poorly educated people in non-manual/managerial positions': less well educated supervisors/skilled and unskilled manual workers and poorly educated non-manual workers; poorly educated top/middle managers or smaller business owners;

E ‘less well educated skilled and unskilled manual workers, small business owners and farmers/fishermen':

• E1 comprises mainly poorly educated supervisors/skilled manual workers and better educated unskilled workers, with some poorly educated non-office, non-manual employees and small business owners;
• E2 comprises mainly very poorly educates supervisors/skilled manual workers and small business owners plus very poorly educated non-office non-manual employees;
• E3 comprises poorly educated unskilled manual workers and farmers/fishermen.

For the purposes of everyday research, these eight Social Grade categories can be aggregated to provide a more practical four-category classification:

AB ‘managers and professionals';
C1 ‘well educated non-manual and skilled workers'
C2 ‘skilled workers and non-manual employees'
DE ‘unskilled manual workers and other less well educated workers/employees'.