Occupations of the British People (Pre-War Census)
A horizontal bar chart in blue, red, black and yellow shows pre-war census headcounts for ten British occupation groups, each beside a stylised figure of a miner, factory hand, professional men, farm worker, transport man, clerk, waiter, builder and typist. The chart is mostly plain statistics; the line of ordinary working figures presents 'the British people' as a nation of workers (plain-folks).
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- British Information Services, New York (an agency of the British Government)
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Home front, Labor, Economy and finance
- Event
- World War II
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (UK Crown copyright, 50 years from publication, expired before 1996; no URAA restoration)
British Information Services, New York, c. 1939-1945. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, Office of Government Reports, WWII Foreign Posters
Text on the object
OCCUPATIONS of the BRITISH PEOPLE (Pre-War Census) MINING 1,120,293 INDUSTRY 5,375,947 PROFESSIONS 840,541 AGRICULTURE 1,352,967 TRANSPORT 1,830,231 COMMERCE 2,318,802 SERVICE 2,628,542 BUILDERS & c. 1,089,911 CLERICAL 1,522,154 OTHER TRADES: 2,692,170 BRITISH INFORMATION SERVICES, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, N.Y. An Agency of the British Government
