Whether forged in neighbourhoods, clubs or universities, cross-class links can boost social mobility and break down divides

Social capital is a key concept in the social sciences and – even though most people don’t use the term – also in common sense. Who you know matters in all sorts of ways. Such connections are associated with access to resources and opportunities of various kinds. Do governments do enough to influence this aspect of our lives and encourage net upward social mobility rather than perpetuating inherited wealth and status? A new British-American study suggests not, and makes some striking recommendations for change.

Using data from Facebook alongside public sources and a survey, the researchers – some of whom work for Facebook’s owner, Meta, and others for the UK government’s behavioural insights team (known as the “nudge unit”) – mapped friendships across the UK. Their finding is that children from poorer backgrounds who live in less economically segregated communities have higher incomes as adults. Those who grow up in the 10% least-connected local authority areas can expect to earn £5,100 less annually than those in the 10% most-connected ones. There are big regional variations, with more connectedness in big cities and the south-east, and much less in deprived parts of Wales and Northern Ireland.