Social class in Italy

Social classes in Italy are bourgeoisie, white-collar middle class, urban petite bourgeoisie, rural petite bourgeoisie, urban working class and rural working class.

1970s Italian social classes according to Labini

In his Essay on social classes the Italian economist Paolo Sylos Labini presented the following classification, based on his analysis of income distribution:

• Bourgeoisie (properly so called), composed by big urban and rural landowners; entrepreneurs and managers of stock companies; autonomous professionals;
• Petite bourgeoisie
  • Clerical petite bourgeoisie
  • Relatively autonomous petite bourgeoisie: farmers, artisans (including small professionals), traders;
  • Petite bourgeoisie composed by particular categories, such as militaries and clergymen;
• Working class;
• Lumpenproletariat.

Contemporary Italian social structure

A hierarchy of social class rank in Italy today.

1. Bourgeoisie (10% of the working population) includes high-class entrepreneurs, managers, politicians, self-employed people, highest-ranking celebrities, etc.

2. White-collar middle class (17% of the working population) includes middle class workers not employed in manual work.

3. Urban petite bourgeoisie (14% of the working population), is mainly made up of shopkeepers, small-business entrepreneurs, self-employed artisans etc.

4. Rural petite bourgeoisie (10% of the working population) consists of small entrepreneurs or estate owners who operate in the countryside, mainly in agriculture and forestry.

5. Urban working class (37% of the working population) refers to the people employed in manual work.

6. Rural working class (9% of the working population) consists of people operating in the primary industry, such as farmers, loggers, fishermen etc.