Table 2.

Descriptives of life course indicators of socio-economic position in ELSA wave 2 and HRS wave 7

	England (n = 8199)		U.S. (n = 3231)
	Measure	%	Measure	%
Early life	Parental class (n = 6412)		Parental education (years) (n = 2804)
	Manual	47.9	Low (0–8)	45.7
	Service	17.9	Middle (8.5–11)	19.2
	Professional	34.2	High (12+)	35.1
Early adulthood	Educational level (n = 8179)		Educational level (n = 3231)
	Low	35.7	Low	19.8
	Mid	38.7	Mid	37.5
	High	25.6	High	42.8
Late midlife	Occupational class (last/current job) (n = 8028)		Occupational class (longest/current job) (n = 2877)
	Manual	41.9	Manual	26.9
	Service	25.1	Service	41.5
	Professional	33.0	Professional	31.6