Moroccan Society

It is to this very difficult exercise that the High Commission for Planning (HCP) has endeavoured to apply itself in what seems to be the first operation of the type. Income and standard of living remain one of the criteria traditionally used to identify a socio-economic grouping. And these are the criteria that have been used by the HCP. The other option that could have been used is that of self-identification by heads of households.
This method was rejected as it was judged to be inappropriate and its results biased. “This method tells us about the way of life of a section of the population in terms of social status. But it carries with it the disadvantage of not fitting in with the objective stratification of society as a whole,” Ahmed Lahlimi, High Commissioner for Planning, explained to us at the unveiling of the first results of the enquiry into the middle class which took place on Wednesday, 6 May. According to the methodology used by the HCP, i.e. income and standard of living, the middle class is defined as that group of individuals disposing of an income close to the median. In order to simplify its outline, the HCP based itself on the enquiry into income and standard of living carried out in 2007 details of which will shortly become available.

In its own methodology the HCP team referred to national median income. The advantage of this median value is that it divides households into two groups of equal size. It also allows us to correct for the skewing effect of extremes. “This is the method adopted in all statistical approaches to fix the limits for the margins in which social classes occur,” the High Commissioner for Planning tells us in justification. National median income comes out at 3,500 dirhams a month per household. In order to determine middle class incomes, the HCP has fixed the minimum, or the floor, at 0.75 times median income, in other words at 2,800 dirhams a month per household. Poor and vulnerable households, and some of those situated beyond the vulnerability threshold, have therefore been left out. These evaluations can be contested as to detail but they do have the merit of starting a debate and giving an overall canvas that can be worked on.

The ceiling for these statistics is fixed at 2˝ times the median and comes out at 6,736 dirhams. The HCP opted for a wide definition of middle-classness. This was a choice justified by income distribution and consumer spending in households that evince inequality: the most affluent 10% of the population account for 38% of the income and 33% of consumer spending. On the other hand 27% live below the vulnerability threshold and only account for 11% of income and 10% of consumer spending. “A wide option in the definition of the middle classes is the one most adapted to a specific policy advocating their reinforcement in a strategy of upward social mobility,” the High Commissioner for Planning opined.