A nationwide poll of 1,020 randomly selected adults showed firefighters and doctors to be the professions with the greatest prestige.
According to a Harris Interactive survey, 63 percent of respondents believed that firefighters had "very great prestige", while 23 percent said they had "considerable prestigue", 11 percent "some prestige" and 3 percent "hardly any prestige".
The 63 percent mark for very great prestige was the highest among all tested professions, and was a seven point bump from 2005. (The report notes that poll takers were had been instructed to use the term "firemen" in previous years, which could possibly explain the shift.)
Furthermore, 63 was the second highest percentage any profession has ever received for the rating, beaten out only by the 66 percent of respondents deeming scientists as having very great prestige in 1977.
This year, the profession of doctor came a close second to firefighters with 58 percent saying the profession had very great prestige. However, doctors held a statistically insignificant one point edge over firefighters in overall percentage of respondents saying the profession had at least some prestige.
At the other end, actors and real estate agents/brokers were most often cited as professions without any prestige at all.
The survey has a three percent margin of error.
