In 2000, there was very little difference between the socio-economic groups in the ownership of most consumer durables.

The exceptions were:

• home computers – professional, employers and managers, and intermediate non-manual households were the most likely to have a home computer (80%, 74% and 70% respectively), compared with 39% of semi-skilled and 26% of unskilled manual workers
• access to the Internet – professional and managerial households (68% and 61% respectively) were most likely to have access to the internet at home, compared with 26% of semi-skilled and 15% of unskilled manual workers
• dishwashers – were most likely to be found in professional, employer and managerial households (45% and 50% respectively), compared with 16% of semi-skilled and 11% of unskilled manual workers
• mobile phones – were most likely to be found in employer and managerial household(80%) compared with 68% of semi-skilled and 57% of unskilled manual workers and 32% of the economically inactive. Between 71-75% of all other households had a mobile phone.