CPA Trendlines

High Pay Doesn’t Necessarily Equal High Prestige. Teachers’ Prestige Increases the Most Over 30 Years.

Results of the annual Harris Poll measuring public perceptions of 23 professions and occupations, indicate that firefighters, scientists, doctors, nurses and teachers are seen as the most prestigious of a list of 23 occupations. Real estate agents, stockbrokers, bankers, accountants and entertainers come at the bottom of the list.

Most Prestigious Occupations

The occupations at the top of the list are:

• Firefighter (57% say “very great prestige”);
• Scientist (56%);
• Doctor (53%);
• Nurse (52%);
• Teacher (52%)

When the numbers for “very great” and “considerable prestige” are added, all of these occupations are very favorably regarded by 74 percent or more of all adults.

Least Prestigious Occupations

Only 15 percent or fewer adults regard the following occupations as having very great prestige:

• Real estate agent/broker (6%);
• Stock broker (10%);
• Banker (15%);
• Accountant (15%);
• Entertainer (15%)

Substantial majorities of adults (from 61% to 83%) believe that these occupations have “hardly any” or only “some” prestige.

Additionally, several occupations are regarded as “very prestigious” by more people this year than they were last year:

• Engineer, up ten points to 40 percent from last year
• Actor, up seven points to 16 percent
• Architect, up five points to 28 percent
• Journalist, up five points to 18 percent
• Union leaders, also up five points to 18 percent
• Banker, up five points to 15 percent.

However, even with these improvements, bankers, actors, union leaders and journalists land near the bottom of the list with “very prestigious” ratings below 20 percent.

Two occupations, which still have relatively high prestige scores, lost more than five points since last year:

• Military officer, down six points to 46 percent
• Doctor, down six points to 53 percent.

Biggest Changes over Last 30 Years

The Harris Poll first asked this question, but with a shorter list of occupations, in 1977.  The biggest change since then has been a 23 point increase from 29 percent to 52 percent in those who believe teachers have very great prestige.

Three occupations have lost substantial ground since 1977:

• Scientist, down ten points to 56 percent
• Doctor, down 15 points to 53 percent
• Lawyer, down 12 points to 24 percent.

So What?

It appears that while many Americas are celebrity obsessed, with gossip magazines and websites as must reads, they do not hold these celebrities in high regard. Actors and entertainers occupy two of the bottom six positions in the list of prestigious occupations.

One other finding is important. Some of the occupations that are widely seen as prestigious (firefighters, teachers, nurses and police officers) are not particularly highly paid, while some of the least prestigious occupations tend to be very highly paid (actors, bankers, entertainers and stockbrokers). Prestige is clearly not just a question of money or celebrity.

TABLE 1

PRESTIGE OF 23 PROFESSIONS AND OCCUPATIONS

“I am going to read off a number of different occupations. For each, would you tell me if you feel it is an occupation of very great prestige, considerable prestige, some prestige or hardly any prestige at all?”

Base: All Adults

	Very Great Prestige	Considerable Prestige	Some Prestige	Hardly Any Prestige At All	Not Sure/ Refused
	%	%	%	%	%
Firefighter	57	26	14	3	*
Scientist	56	24	15	4	*
Doctor	53	28	14	3	2
Nurse	52	23	18	6	*
Teacher	52	22	21	4	*
Military officer	46	24	20	8	2
Police officer	46	25	22	7	*
Farmer	41	20	25	12	1
Priest/Minister/Clergy	40	25	23	11	*
Engineer	40	27	26	5	2
Member of Congress	28	24	31	15	1
Architect	28	30	34	7	1
Lawyer	24	21	39	15	1
Athlete	20	17	41	20	2
Journalist	18	24	40	17	2
Union Leader	18	17	38	25	2
Business executive	17	24	44	14	1
Actor	16	11	40	32	1
Entertainer	15	16	41	27	2
Accountant	15	22	46	15	1
Banker	15	21	49	15	*
Stockbroker	10	18	42	26	4
Real estate agent/broker	6	10	49	34	2

*Less Than 0.5%

TABLE 2

31-YEAR TREND FOR “VERY GREAT” PRESTIGE

“I am going to read off a number of different occupations. For each, would you tell me if you feel it is an occupation of very great prestige, considerable prestige, some prestige or hardly any prestige at all?”

Base: All Adults

	1977	1982	1992	1997	1998	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Firefighter***	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	55	48	56	63	61	57
Scientist	66	59	57	51	55	56	53	51	57	52	56	54	54	56
Doctor	61	55	50	52	61	61	61	50	52	52	54	58	52	53
Nurse	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	47	44	50	55	50	52
Teacher	29	28	41	49	53	53	54	47	49	48	47	52	54	52
Military officer	NA	22	32	29	34	42	40	47	46	47	49	51	52	46
Police Officer **	NA	NA	34	36	41	38	37	40	42	40	40	43	46	46
Farmer	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	36	41	41
Priest/Minister/ Clergy****	41	42	38	45	46	45	43	36	38	32	36	40	42	40
Engineer	34	30	37	32	34	32	36	34	28	29	34	34	30	40
Member of Congress	NA	NA	24	23	25	33	24	27	30	31	26	28	26	28
Architect	NA	NA	NA	NA	26	26	28	27	24	20	27	27	23	28
Lawyer	36	30	25	19	23	21	18	15	17	17	18	21	22	24
Athlete	26	20	18	21	20	21	22	21	17	21	23	23	16	20
Journalist	17	16	15	15	15	16	18	19	15	14	14	16	13	18
Union leader	NA	NA	12	14	16	16	17	14	15	16	15	12	13	18
Business executive**	18	16	19	16	18	15	12	18	18	19	15	11	14	17
Actor	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	13	16	16	12	9	16
Entertainer	18	16	17	18	19	21	20	19	17	16	18	18	12	15
Accountant	NA	13	14	18	17	14	15	13	15	10	13	17	11	15
Banker	17	17	17	15	18	15	16	15	14	15	15	17	10	15
Stockbroker	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	8	10	8	11	12	10
Real estate broker/agent	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	6	5	9	6	5	6

* No trend; NA not asked

** In surveys prior to 2001 we used the words “policeman” (now changed to “police officer”) and businessman (now changed to “business executive”) which may account for the changes from 2001 to 2002.

***In surveys prior to 2006, we used the word “fireman” (now changed to firefighter) which may account for some of the changes from 2005 to 2006.

****In surveys prior to 2007, we used the word “clergyman” now changed to clergy which many account for some of the changes from 2006 to 2007.

TABLE 3

CHANGES FOR “VERY GREAT” PRESTIGE

“I am going to read off a number of different occupations. For each, would you tell me if you feel it is an occupation of very great prestige, considerable prestige, some prestige or hardly any prestige at all?”

Base: All Adults

	2008 Total for Very Great Prestige	Changes since 1977	Changes since last year
	%	%	%
Firefighter	57	NA	-4
Scientist	56	-10	+2
Doctor	53	-15	-6
Nurse	52	NA	+2
Teacher	52	+23	-2
Military officer	46	NA	-6
Police Officer	46	NA	0
Farmer	41	NA	0
Priest/Minister/Clergy	40	-1	-2
Engineer	40	+6	+10
Member of Congress	28	NA	+2
Architect	28	NA	+5
Lawyer	24	-12	+2
Athlete	20	-6	+4
Journalist	18	+1	+5
Union leader	18	NA	+5
Business executive	17	-1	+3
Actor	16	NA	+7
Entertainer	15	-3	+3
Accountant	15	NA	+4
Banker	15	-2	+5
Stockbroker	10	NA	-2
Real estate broker/agent	6	NA	+1

Note: N/A indicates occupation wasn’t asked about in 1977

Methodology

The Harris Poll^® was conducted by telephone within the United States between July 8 and 13, 2008 among a nationwide cross section of 1,010 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race, education, number of adults, number of voice/telephone lines in the household, region and size of place were weighted where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population.  However, only approximately 500 people were asked about each occupation.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words “margin of error” as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Posted August 5, 2008
Related Topics: prestige, rankings