BACKGROUND
Measures of socioeconomic status have been used in research dealing with health and medicine, business, and various disciplines of the social sciences for a long time. Sometimes these measures are used by researchers to explain socioeconomic effects on other variables; sometimes they are used as a control when other relationships are being studied; and sometimes they are the focus of attempts to understand the social hierarchies in societies, communities, and groups.
Many socioeconomic measures have been developed over the years, some designed for particular studies and others created for more general use. This website presents information about one socioeconomic measure - what is now referred to as the Nam-Powers-Boyd Occupational Status Scale, which is a general use measure. The pages of this website inform you about the history of the measure, the occupational status scores that were derived from it for different past years as well as the latest set of scores, how you can determine which occupational categories best fit the data you have, and references to books and articles that discuss the scale.
The scale builds on analysis of occupational status in the U.S. censuses done by Census Bureau employees going back to the late 19th century, but this scale (begun after 1950) uses more developed methodology than in earlier years. The wide acceptability of this measure is reflected in the presentation of the N-P-B scale and resulting scores in the database of IPUMS (the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series maintained at the University of Minnesota).
We believe the information presented here will meet your need for a socioeconomic measure (if your data includes an occupation variable), but we would be glad to hear from you if you have questions about the method or data or need clarification about them.
Measures of socioeconomic status have been used in research dealing with health and medicine, business, and various disciplines of the social sciences for a long time. Sometimes these measures are used by researchers to explain socioeconomic effects on other variables; sometimes they are used as a control when other relationships are being studied; and sometimes they are the focus of attempts to understand the social hierarchies in societies, communities, and groups.
Many socioeconomic measures have been developed over the years, some designed for particular studies and others created for more general use. This website presents information about one socioeconomic measure - what is now referred to as the Nam-Powers-Boyd Occupational Status Scale, which is a general use measure. The pages of this website inform you about the history of the measure, the occupational status scores that were derived from it for different past years as well as the latest set of scores, how you can determine which occupational categories best fit the data you have, and references to books and articles that discuss the scale.
The scale builds on analysis of occupational status in the U.S. censuses done by Census Bureau employees going back to the late 19th century, but this scale (begun after 1950) uses more developed methodology than in earlier years. The wide acceptability of this measure is reflected in the presentation of the N-P-B scale and resulting scores in the database of IPUMS (the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series maintained at the University of Minnesota).
We believe the information presented here will meet your need for a socioeconomic measure (if your data includes an occupation variable), but we would be glad to hear from you if you have questions about the method or data or need clarification about them.
