Perceptions of Social Mobility in the UK: unpacking public attitudes and evolving aspirations

The Social Mobility Commission’s report, Perceptions of Social Mobility in the UK: unpacking public attitudes and evolving aspirations, presents public perceptions of social mobility, inequality and what constitutes a successful life in the UK in 2025.

The report draws on polling data by Ipsos involving 5,276 UK adults to explore several important themes

• How do people describe their own class compared with that of their parents?
• Do people feel better or worse off than their parents across core aspects of social mobility?
• How concerned are people about class differences and inequality more broadly?
• What constitutes success in life, and how does this align with traditional social mobility outcomes?
• What are the most effective routes to a successful life?

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Key Findings 

What constitutes success and what do people value?

• Britons are more likely to say success is about physical and mental wellbeing’ (95%) or ‘having good relationships with family and friends’ (94%) rather than ‘earning a high income’ (65%) or ‘having a job regarded as professional or managerial’ (44%).
• When asked about work, people were most likely to say that success was about ‘having a good work–life balance’ (63%), with ‘job security’ (56%) and ‘work they feel passionate about’ (53%) also ranked more highly than ‘having a highly paid job’ (40%) or ‘having a job regarded as professional/managerial’ (26%).

Perceptions of class and social mobility in the UK

• Most people described their parents as working class (65%) when asked if they were ‘working class’, ‘middle class’ or ‘upper class’.  Most people also referred to themselves as working class (53%).
• Class identity can be ‘sticky’.  A large majority (76%) of people described themselves as being in the same class as their parents despite 74% saying that they were better off.
• People tended to think social mobility is becoming more difficult: 55% of respondents believed it ‘is becoming harder’ for people from less advantaged backgrounds to move up in British society, and just 12% believed it ‘is becoming easier’.

Perceptions of inequalities and whether they matter in the UK

• Three in four people said that there were big gaps between social classes.  However inequality is seen as less of a concern than other issues like inflation, the UK economy and the NHS.
• People identifying as being from working class background had the lowest level of concern for inequality (59% working class, 61% middle class and 73% upper class).

Best routes for everyone to succeed

• When asked to rate the extent to which different investment route would help, a large proportion of respondents felt that investing in ‘apprenticeships’ (83% ), ‘job creation’ (82%) and ‘schools’ (82%) would help people to achieve success regardless of their background.  Support for university education was comparatively lower at 67%.

Read the full report