Essential Report
Social Class Identification
Q. Do you consider yourself –
Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote other | Income under $1,000pw | Income $1,000 – $1,500pw | Income $1,500 – $2,000pw | Income $2,000+ | Aug 2014 | ||||
Working class | 34% | 42% | 28% | 26% | 40% | 46% | 40% | 31% | 21% | 31% | |||
Middle class | 48% | 44% | 62% | 48% | 39% | 31% | 45% | 60% | 67% | 49% | |||
Upper class | 2% | 2% | 1% | 2% | 2% | <1% | 1% | 2% | 4% | 2% | |||
None of them | 10% | 9% | 6% | 20% | 17% | 19% | 8% | 4% | 6% | 13% | |||
Don’t know | 5% | 3% | 3% | 4% | 3% | 4% | 6% | 3% | 3% | 6% |
48% of respondents described themselves as “middle class” and 34% as “working class” – only 2% claimed to be “upper class”.
Those on higher incomes were more likely to identify as “middle class” while those on lower incomes were more likely to identify as “working class”.
The results are not substantially different from those when this question was asked in 2014.

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