Abstract: Sense of gain is a comprehensive response of people’s subjective cognition and emotional experience to the process and results of satisfying their needs in social reform and development. It has become a new index reflecting the sharing of social development achievements and the improvement of people’s quality of life. This paper, based on the CASS-Matview Sense of Gain Survey 2019, analyzes its current situation and demographic differences, and explores the different characteristics in terms of different social classes. The results show that the public has a good overall sense of gain, with relatively high scores in the content, access and sharing, and relatively low scores in environment and experience. Objective social class indicators such as education level, income, occupation and housing situation have different effects on the sense of gain. With the demographic variables and the objective social class index controlled, the subjective social class still has a certain predictive effect, falling into a pattern of high at both ends and low in the middle. In view of this, some suggestions are put forward with an aim to provide a reference for making policies of social governance.

Key words: sense of gain, objective social class, subjective social class, middle-class anxiety, social governance, social policy