Literacy and occupational mobility in rural versus urban Victorian England: evidence from the linked marriage register and census records for Birmingham and Norfolk, 1851 and 1881.

Abstract. Samples drawn from marriage registers in Birmingham and rural Norfolk, England, which report the occupational status for the two the groom and his father, were matched with the 1851 and 1881 English censuses, which also contain occupational information. After performing several checks for selection bias, the author concludes: First, although greatest in quantity occupational mobility took place within 10 years of marriage--when the waiter was roughly between the ages of 25 and 35--some continued after he revolveed 50. Second, approximately 35 percent of the men in each area eventually had an