There are many concepts that are formed from the term society: socio-political, sociolinguistic, socio-biology or socio-economic. All of them express a common idea: the fusion of two aspects of reality, one of them being society as a whole.
Socioeconomic status is understood as the economic and social capacity of an individual, a family or a country. Somehow we all have an approximate idea of the three socioeconomic levels or levels: the low, the middle and the high. However, from a sociological point of view it is necessary to precisely establish levels based on objective criteria. For this, sociologists use a series of different variables (educational level, type of home and number of rooms, type of personal computer, percentage of spending on food, access to water, and others). If these variables are applied to a family, it is possible to specify its socioeconomic level. To prepare these data, sociologists use mathematical algorithms and the results obtained are very useful (to carry out market studies, to know the reality of a population or to carry out a demographic study for political purposes).
The criterion for measuring socioeconomic levels is an issue that has been evolving in recent decades. It should be borne in mind that establishing a rigorous theoretical framework allows us to better understand some aspect of society.
General considerations
Most sociological studies relate the health status of people with their socioeconomic level.
The mortality rate of a country depends on the different socioeconomic levels and the same happens with other social indices (the birth rate, the population with higher education, the number of children, etc.).
From sociology, analyzes are carried out that are based on socioeconomic levels and this type of study allows us to know realities of all kinds (about consumption habits, juvenile delinquency, school enrollment rates or gender violence).
Final conclusion
Socioeconomic levels are sociological tools. In other words, they are general data that allow us to understand social changes. It should not be forgotten that all societies are dynamic and it is useful to have mechanisms and parameters to understand the transformations that occur within any society. Data is more than numbers and percentages, because in some way they express the human reality of a set of individuals.
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