Socioeconomic status is typically broken into three levels (high, middle, and low) to describe the three places a family or an individual may fall into. When placing a family or individual into one of these categories, any or all of the three variables (income, education, and occupation) can be assessed.

Socioeconomic status (SES) encompasses not just income but also educational attainment, financial security, and subjective perceptions of social status and social class. Socioeconomic status can encompass quality of life attributes as well as the opportunities and privileges afforded to people within society.

These measures generally ask participants to indicate their most recent occupation, which is then classified into occupational categories. SES: Resource-based measures including measures of educational attainment, total family income, labor market earnings, wealth, and SES composite scores.

Socioeconomic status is the social standing or class of an individual or group. It is often measured as a combination of education, income and occupation.

Social and economic factors, such as income, education, employment, community safety, and social supports can significantly affect how well and how long we live. These factors affect our ability to make healthy choices, afford medical care and housing, manage stress, and more.

SES affects overall human functioning, including our physical and mental health. Low SES and its correlates, such as lower educational achievement, poverty, and poor health, ultimately affect our society.

CONCLUSION: Socioeconomic status makes a large difference to the impact of illness on the ability to remain in paid employment, and this impact increases as unemployment rises. Men with chronic illness in manual occupations were not drawn back into the labour force during the economic recovery of the late 1980s.

Low SES is an important determinant of access to health care. Persons with low incomes are more likely to be Medicaid recipients or uninsured, have poor-quality health care, and seek health care less often; when they do seek health care, it is more likely to be for an emergency. 22–26 Blendon et al.

A low socioeconomic status (SES) is known to be associated with more frequent mental health problems. People of the lowest SES are estimated to be two to three times as likely to have a mental disorder than are those with the highest SES.