Social class

Social class, group of people with a similar social standing based on factors such as wealth, ancestry, or occupation. The different social classes recognized by members of a society form a hierarchy. This hierarchy may be an informal one, such as exists in democracies like the United States, or it may be rigidly delineated, as is the case of the caste system in India. In the United States, social class is popularly determined by income; people are grouped into upper, middle, and lower classes, with subdivisions of each main category.