1. The two measures, the socioeconomic status score and the status consistency type, were obtained by combining data on: (a) Occupation, (b) educational attainment, and (c) family income (or income of persons not in families).

2. These measures were constructed for chief income recipients. Such a person was identified for each family. Each unrelated individual years old and over in households, and each person in group quarters (including inmates of institutions, members of the Armed Forces in military barracks, students in college dormitories, and residents in rooming houses) was treated as a chief income recipient. (See point 4 for treatment of unrelated individuals under in households.)

3. The chief income recipient in a family was defined as that member of a family who had the largest total Income In 1959 (at least $1 more than any other family member). If the family head and one or more other family members had identical incomes and they had the highest incomes in the family, or if no family member had reported income, the family head was considered the chief income recipient. If two or more family members other than the head had equal and highest incomes, the first one listed was regarded as the chief income recipient.

4. The socioeconomic measures for chief income recipients in families were assigned to other family members. Since a child under 14 cannot reasonably be regarded as having a socioeconomic status independent of that of the household in which he lives, unrelated individuals under in households (mostly foster children) were assigned the same measures as the head of the household, on the assumption that such children Generally share the living conditions of the household head. In order to complete the assignment of scores for all persons, persons under 14 years old in group quarters were arbitrarily assigned zero income and persons under 5 years old in group quarters were also assigned no school years completed. All other unrelated individuals were assigned component scores based on their own characteristics.

5. The reported occupation for a chief income recipient was used, provided he was currently in the civilian labor force or, if not, had worked since 1950. Since the rank and duties of members of the Armed Forces are not known from the census, chief income recipients currently in the Armed Forces were assigned a uniform occupation rating. For a chief income recipient who did not report his occupation or who had not worked since 1950, his score on education was assigned as his score on occupation also.

6. The socioeconomic status score was determined in the following way: (a) the occupation, education, and family income for the chief income recipient were identified. (b) The scores corresponding to the reported occupation, education, and family income of the chief income recipient were then determined by referring to a list of scores assigned to the various occupations and educational and income levels. (For list of scores, see appendixes I-IV.) (c) A simple average of the three component scores was computed; and the result was rounded to the nearest whole score.

The scores for each component item are distributed so that about 10 percent of the persons fall in each tenth of the distribution of scores for that item. If the component item scores were perfectly correlated, the distribution of the average (overall socioeconomic status score) would have 10 percent of the persons in each tenth of the distribution. The socioeconomic scores obtained by averaging the component scores are, as one would expect from the methods employed, distributed so that larger percentages of persons are in the central part of the distribution of scores and smaller percentages are at the extremes. (See section below on "Uses and Limitations of the Data" for a fuller explanation.)

7. The status consistency type was determined in the following way, using the three scores identified in 6(b) above:
a. If the range between the highest and lowest scores was 20 or less, recode 1 was assigned.
b. If the range between the highest and lowest scores exceeded 20, and the range between the medium and lowest scores was 20 or less and less than the range between the 'highest and medium scores:
(1) Recode 2 was assigned if the income score was highest
(2) Recode 4 was assigned if the education score was highest
(3) Recode 6 was assigned if the occupation score was highest.
c. If the range between the highest and lowest scores exceeded 20 and the range between the highest and medium scores was 20 or less and equal to or less than the range between the medium and lowest scores:
(1) Code 3 was assigned if the income score was lowest
(2) Code 5 was assigned if the education score was lowest
(3) Code 7 was assigned if the occupation score was lowest.
d. If the range between the highest and medium scores and the medium and lowest scores each exceeded 20:
(1) Code 8 was assigned if the occupation score was highest and income score lowest
(2) Code 9 was assigned if the occupation score was highest and education score lowest
(3) Code 10 was assigned if the education score was highest and occupation score lowest
(4) Code 11 was assigned if the education score was highest and income score lowest
(5) Code 12 was assigned if the income score was highest and occupation score lowest
(6) Code 13 was assigned if the income score was highest and education score lowest.

The resulting status consistency types may be described as follows:

Status consistency type	Characteristics
1	All three components consistent
2	Occupation and education consistent; income high
3	Occupation and education consistent; income low
4	Occupation and income consistent; education high
5	Occupation and income consistent; education low
6	Education and income consistent; occupation high
7	Education and income consistent; occupation low
8	All inconsistent; occupation highest, income lowest
9	All inconsistent; occupation highest, education lowest
10	All inconsistent; education highest, occupation lowest
11	All inconsistent; education highest, income lowest
12	All inconsistent; income highest, occupation lowest
13	All inconsistent; income highest, education lowest

1. A basic assumption in the derivation of the socioeconomic measures is that the status level of a family is determined largely by the status attributes of the family breadwinner and that the socioeconomic measures for the chief income recipient of a family thus should be assigned to other family members.

2. The component items of the measures (occupation, education, and income) were selected because they represent somewhat different aspects of socioeconomic status and, in addition, because they are items which are periodically included in the Current Population Survey and in other population censuses and surveys conducted by the Bureau of the Census.

3. The choice of a particular index of each component item was based, in part, on the kinds of data available in census reports and, in part, on the expected uses to which the socioeconomic data would be put. Family income, rather than the income of the chief income recipient, was chosen because it was felt that the socioeconomic status of a family was related more closely to the family income than to the income of the chief earner.

4. The scores assigned to the categories of the component items were derived as follows: (a) The scores for education were obtained by computing a cumulative percentage distribution by education of chief income recipients in families as of 1959. (For example, persons who had completed five or more years of college were found to be distributed between the 96th and 100th percentiles.) The score assigned to each category of education was the midpoint of the cumulative percentage interval for the category. (For example, a score of 98 was assigned to persons who had completed five or more years of college), (b) the scores for family income were obtained in a similar manner. (c) The scores for detailed occupations were based on the most recently available data, those for males 14 years old and over in the experienced civilian labor force as of 1950- The detailed occupations were scored according to the combined average levels of education and income for the given occupation. Thus, the score obtained is an average score for the occupation and it contributes an independent effect to the total socioeconomic score, which includes also the individual's actual educational and income levels. Using the number of workers in each occupation, a cumulative percentage distribution was obtained. The score for a given occupation was then determined by taking the midpoint of the cumulative percentage interval for that occupation.

The occupational scores obtained by this procedure indicate the position of the average person in a given occupation, based on the education and income distributions for that occupation. This score may differ from that which would be assigned on the basis of judgments or other determinations about the prestige of the occupation. Although prestige ratings of detailed occupations may have been desired for use in this socioeconomic analysis, no adequate basis for deriving such prestige ratings was available and the procedure used here to score the occupations was deemed to be useful.
The standards (or basic information) on which the scores were based refer to a particular point in time. Present evidence indicates that the average of the component scores for a given type of population group would change very little over a period of time; however, for future historical analysis, the standards could be revised periodically to take into consideration changes in the distribution of the items over time.

The data on Years of School Completed were derived from combinations of the answers to the two questions: (a) "What is the highest grade (or year) of regular school he has ever attended?" and (b) "Did he finish this grade (or year)?" Enumerators were instructed to obtain the approximate equivalent grade in the American school system for persons whose highest grade of attendance was in a foreign school system, whose highest level of attendance was in an ungraded school, whose highest level of schooling was measured by "readers," or whose training by a tutor was regarded as qualifying under the "regular" school definition. Persons were to answer "No" to the second question if they were attending school, had completed only part of a grade before they dropped out, or failed to pass the last grade attended.

The occupational classification system developed for the 1960 Census consists of 494 items, 297 of which are specific occupation categories and the remainder of which are subgroups (mainly on the basis of industry) of 13 of the occupation categories. The composition of the 297 categories is shown in the publication, U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1960 Census of Population, Classified Index of Occupations and Industries, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1960.

Total family income, as used here, refers to the sum of amounts reported separately for wage or salary income, self-employment income, and other income for all family members. Wage or salary income is defined as the total money earnings received for work performed as an employee. It represents the amount received before deductions for personal income taxes, Social Security, bond purchases, union dues, etc. Self-employment income is defined as net money income (gross receipts minus operating expenses) from a business, farm, or professional enterprise in which the person was engaged on his own account. Other income includes money income received from such sources as net rents, interest, dividends, Social Security benefits, pensions, veterans' payments, unemployment insurance, and public assistance or other governmental payments, and periodic receipts from insurance policies or annuities. Not included as income are money received from the sale of property (unless the recipient was engaged in the business of selling such property), the value of income "in kind," withdrawals of bank deposits, money borrowed, tax refunds, and gifts and lump-sum inheritances or insurance payments. Although the time period covered by the income statistics is the calendar year 1959, the composition of families refers to the time of enumeration. For most of the families, however, the income reported was received by persons who were members of the family throughout 1959.