One index that differs sharply as between the middle classes and manual workers
is birthplace. More than 60 per cent of those belonging to the middle classes are
from metropolitan Bangkok, with the proportion from urban areas reaching close to
70 per cent if those from local cities are included. There is no denying that the Thai
middle classes are very much urban based. We next conducted multiple compar-
isons of analysis of variance (ANOVA) on the mean years of schooling (of the re-
spondent) and mean incomes (of the respondent and of the household) in order to
e
xamine the status differences of various urban strata. It was empirically confirmed
that people in the upper white-collar stratum hold a significantly distinct social sta-
tus among the middle classes, leading others, including the lower middle strata, both
in terms of years of schooling and income (
p
< 0.01).