page_title: Underclass
hierarchical_section_title: Underclass
caption_attribution_description: 'English: I created the illustration myself using the class model by Dennis Gilbert in The American Class Structure.
context_page_description: The underclass is the segment of the population that occupies the lowest possible position in a class hierarchy, below the core body of the working class.
  The general idea that a class system includes a population under the working class has a long tradition in the social sciences. However, the specific term, underclass, was popularized during the last half of the 20th century, first by social scientists of American poverty, and then by American journalists.
  The underclass concept has been a point of controversy among social scientists. Definitions and explanations of the underclass, as well as proposed solutions for managing or fixing the underclass problem have been highly debated.
context_section_description: The underclass is the segment of the population that occupies the lowest possible position in a class hierarchy, below the core body of the working class.
  The general idea that a class system includes a population under the working class has a long tradition in the social sciences (for example, lumpenproletariat). However, the specific term, underclass, was popularized during the last half of the 20th century, first by social scientists of American poverty, and then by American journalists.
  
  The underclass concept has been a point of controversy among social scientists. Definitions and explanations of the underclass, as well as proposed solutions for managing or fixing the underclass problem have been highly debated.
caption: The term underclass is employed by sociologists such as Dennis Gilbert to describe the most disadvantaged socio-economic demographic with the least access to scarce resources. In this chart constructed by Gilbert, the American underclass is estimated to constitute roughly 12% of U.S. households.[1]
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