Social mobility is the extent to which people are able to move between socio-economic strata during their lifetime and between generations.[a] In societies with low social mobility, individual outcomes are strongly determined by their starting point in life. That is, children from privileged backgrounds tend to grow up to be privileged themselves in terms of education, income, wealth and occupation; on the other hand, children from poor families tend to grow up poor themselves. Low social mobility not only erodes the foundation of growth, it also reduces well-being and puts social cohesion and democratic participation at risk.[1] In societies with high social mobility, individual life chances are not strongly determined by where you come from or who your parents are.[2] In high-mobility societies, children from less well-off backgrounds will have the same chances of achieving their aspirations as those from more advantaged upbringings. Measures of social mobility capture the persistence of individual positions over time, and the extent to which people can escape those positions.
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