SES is short for
socioeconomic status, a concept used in a lot of
social sciences research to identify different levels of
material wealth,
social influence, and group power in a given
population. Socioeconomic status categorization is based on things like how much money you make, what part of town you live in, whether you have substantial savings, and whether you belong to a
race or
ethnicity which is treated differently from the
norm in your
society. In many ways it's a replacement for the less
precise concept of
class.
More information at
socioeconomic status. The abbreviation merits its own node because in most scientific contexts it is rarely or never
expanded.