The following tables analyse the characteristics of social class and income group in combination with sex, age, marital status, session type and number of donations and compare the results with certain universe data for England and Wales for 1966 (Census reports).

For this analysis tables were prepared covering almost every conceivable kind of breakdown. Only the main ones are reproduced here: to publish them all would be crazy and costly. The whole collection, however, is in the author's undestroyed files and may be seen on request.

First, a few notes of explanation.

Social Class Key

• 0. Not answered

• II. Intermediate occupations

• III. Skilled occupations

• IV. Partly skilled occupations

• I. Professional, etc., occupations

• V. Unskilled occupations

• 6. Economically inactive (including students, inmates of institutions, and those living on private means or Supplementary Benefits).

• 7. Retired.

• 8. Members of Defence Services

• 9. Not enough information for classification

Housewives and married women (whether economically active or not) were assigned to the social class of husband (if widowed, divorced or separated to the social class of chief earner in household).

Where single male and female donors completed both Questions 12 and 13 he or she was assigned to the social class of the chief earner in the household. In other cases they took their own social class. Donors in the Defence Services (134 males) are generally excluded from this social class analysis. Most of them in fact might appropriately be assigned to classes III-V (in certain tables this adjustment is made). On January 1, 1967, the number of males in the Services totalled 349,017 (source: Ministry of Defence). These donors in the ‘sample’ therefore represented 38 per 100,000 males in the Defence Services male population compared with 2280 males and females per 100,000 males and females in the general population of England and Wales (based on effective civilian donor panel as at December 31, 1965).

Income Group of Chief Earner (see Questionnaire)

Sources of universe data. Distribution of normal weekly earnings of employees: see Family Expenditure Survey Report for 1966, Ministry of Labour and Thatcher, A. R., ‘The Distribution of Earnings of Employees in Great Britain’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, especially Table 5, Vol. 131, Pt 2, 1968. See also Abstract of Regional Statistics, No. 3, 1967, H.M.S.O., Table 44.