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7 September 2023

Sociological measures of inequality

This is not the latest version of this publication. For the final version, published by Oxford University Press on 17th July 2024, please see here.

Concepts and measures of ‘social class’ and of ‘social stratification’ are used extensively within sociology and its cognate disciplines, but differ from indicators of inequality such as earnings, income, wealth, educational attainment and local area deprivation that are used elsewhere in this volume. This commentary outlines characteristics of sociological measures of inequality, discusses their relative merits, and highlights some different conclusions and interpretations that a focus on sociological measures can bring to our understanding of inequality.

Cite this as:

Lambert, P. (2023), ‘Sociological measures of inequality’, IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities, https://ifs.org.uk/inequality/sociological-measures-of-inequality