The Health Survey for England [1] measured the prevalence of ever having had doctor-diagnosed asthma and of self-reported wheeze in the last 12 months in children aged 2 to 15 years and in adults aged 16+ (Fig. 1) adjusting for age. In children there is little difference by social class in the prevalence of diagnosed asthma or of wheeze. In adults there is no class trend for asthma but for wheeze there is clear evidence of a gradient with a third more wheeze in classes IV/V than in I/II. It should be noted that wheeze can be associated with COPD in older adults. COPD is linked with smoking, a class related behaviour.