IT may not be quite as rigid as in that classic TV sketch with John Cleese and the Two Ronnies - but class awareness is still alive.

The number of people who claim they are middle class has increased by nearly half in 40 years, a report showed today.

But the majority of people still claim to be working class - even some on é100,000 a year.

The researchers found that 53 per cent of people thought they were working class, while 43 per cent claimed to be middle class, compared with just 30 per cent of people in 1966.

The report predicts that by 2020 more people will consider themselves to be middle class than working class.

The research, for the friendly society Liverpool Victoria, found that the incomes of people who were working class were now at the same level as middle class incomes in the 1980s.

Counterparts

But the average middle class person still had é104,000 more individual wealth, such as savings and investments, than their working class counterparts.

There was a great deal of confusion among people as to which class they belonged to, with 36 per cent of builders regarding themselves as middle class, while 29 per cent of bank managers said they were working class. In the Cleese sketch the characters all knew their place in a structured system.

The researchers said around 2.67 million people regarded themselves as being working class even though they were among the top 20 per cent of richest people, while half a million people who earned more than é100,000 a year still thought of themselves as working class.

The research found that the average middle class worker earned nearly a quarter more than their working class counterpart at é25,485, compared with é20,553.

And while both classes have similar levels of home ownership, middle class people live in properties that are worth an average 70 per cent more than those owned by working class people.

Just under a third of both groups thought your upbringing and job was important in determining your class, but working class people were more likely to place an emphasis on income, while middle class people tended to cite education and the house and area you lived in as being important.

What do you think of the class structure? Have your say.

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