This report by The Sutton Trust highlights the six years since Elitist Britain 2019 have been a time of political and social turbulence at home and abroad, including wars, a pandemic, a cost of living crisis, and five prime ministers. Racial diversity and inclusion leapt to the top of the agenda, before becoming subject of a ‘culture war’, while the 2024 General Election saw unprecedented political fragmentation, with many rejecting ‘establishment’ parties on both the right and left.  The Elitist Britain 2025 report finds that despite this volatility, there has been little change in the backgrounds of Britain’s ‘elite’.

Elites are over five times more likely to have attended a fee-paying school than the general population. Attendance at prestigious universities is also common, with elites over five times more likely to have gone to a Russell Group university and 21 times more likely to have gone to Oxford or Cambridge. The pipeline from independent school to elite universities remains strong, with 1 in 4 members of the elite having gone from an independent school to a Russell Group university.

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