Life chances are a key aspect of studying social inequality and stratification. Life chances refer to people’s chances of having positive or negative outcomes over their lifetime in relation to, for example, their education, health, income, employment and housing. Life chances are distributed unequally between individuals and groups because they are affected by social factors such as class position, gender and ethnicity. People in higher social classes have more chance than those in other classes of accessing good quality healthcare and decent housing. Life chances are shaped by inequalities in wealth, income, power and status. 

Life Chances is a theory propounded by famous sociologist Max Weber. Weberian’s theory of life chances is the extension of some of Karl Marx’s ideas. They both agreed on the necessity of economic factors in our life but Weber explained this theory with more detail. For him, social equality and social mobility are very important aspects to live a prosperous life. Many random factors are affecting our life chances like age, race, ethnicity or gender but there are certain non-random factors also. These non-random factors are social class, status, caste, political influence and so on. Undoubtedly, economic factors play a crucial role as it provides resources to grab more chances in life. We cannot even generalize these aspects for everyone. “Life chances” is a subjective and abstract term and it gets influenced by social stratification in many ways.

Max Weber identified four main classes with different life chances in the labour market:

- Property owners

- Professionals

- Petty bourgeoisie

- Working class

Weber did agree with Marx on the significance of the economic dimension of stratification. He, however, added the aspects of prestige(Status) and Power (Party) to the understanding of social stratification. Weber was convinced that differences in status led to differences in lifestyles. “As distinguished from the consequences of property differences for life chances, status differences, according to Weber, lead to differences in life styles which form an important element in the social exclusiveness of various status groups. Status groups acquire honour primarily by usurpation. They claim certain rewards and act out their claims in terms of certain manners and styles of behavior and certain socially exclusive activities. status groups are usually communities.

Lifestyle defines our way of living. In the sociological dimension, lifestyle connects our habits with several social dimensions. According to psychologist Alfred Adler, the basic character of a person is established in his/her early childhood. Various factors affect our lifestyle like economic factors, place of living, our values and preferences, social status and so on.

Earlier this study focuses only on social structure and our position in it. But later, it has been comprehended in detail. Accordingly, the social dimension started explaining our lifestyle more broadly by using social status as a distinctive element of status that is strictly connected with prestige. Lifestyle is so important because it is a visible dimension of our living standards. Our town, work, culture, income, etc. are sub-parts of a social system only. Many psychological conditions also influence it. Our attitudes, interests, practices, and principles affect our image in front of others. There is always our thought process which cannot be ignored. Apart from it, our actions are also fundamental in explaining our lifestyle. For example, we often use physical objects like expensive vehicles to articulate our social standards.

With time the study related to these areas is broadening its horizon. The composition of culture and tradition always includes the number of life changes that we get in a lifetime and its results that whether we use them as our lifestyle or not.