Social mobility
![Illustration from a 1916 advertisement for a vocational school in the back of a US magazine. Education has been seen as a key to social mobility, and the advertisement appealed to Americans' belief in the possibility of self-betterment and as threatening the consequences of downward mobility in the great income inequality existing during the Industrial Revolution.](/Images/godic/202501/15/Going_up_or_down_advertisement3415.jpg")
![Social mobility is lower in more unequal countries. Wilkinson and Pickett (2009).](/Images/godic/202501/15/Social_mobility_is_lower_in_more_unequal_countries3415.jpg")
![Comparison of social mobility in selected countries](/Images/godic/202501/15/Intergenerational_mobility_graph-13415.jpg")
![Structural equation model of the direct and indirect influence of childhood position and IQ upon social status attainment at mid-life.All parameters significant (p<.05)[24]](/Images/godic/202501/15/Deary_model023415.png")
Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households, or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to others' social location within a given society.