Abstract: This paper reviews the Western and Chinese literature on social class evaluation indicators from the perspectives of the definition of social class, social class evaluation indices, achievements of social class evaluation indices and deficiencies of social class evaluation indices. The study finds that the selection of evaluation indices affects the results of social class division and the understanding of social structure changes. Related research in China has made many achievements, forming a social structure theory with Chinese characteristics. Meanwhile there are still some problems such as simple division criteria and division basis making the results incomparable. Therefore it is necessary to establish a scientific, rational, dynamic, and applicable evaluation index system.

Key words: Social class, evaluation index, socio-economic status index, literature review, occupation