Poverty or inequality? Which affects health most in rich countries?
23 February 2006
PA32/06
A long running controversy over whether it is poverty or inequality that is bad for health in rich countries has been resolved.
Researchers from The University of Nottingham and the University of York have reviewed 168 published epidemiological analyses and found that more unequal countries have lower life expectancy, worse health and higher rates of violence.
Professor Richard Wilkinson and Dr Kate Pickett found that what matters is not inequality within small neighbourhoods, but the scale of inequality across whole countries, where income differentials determine the size and importance of social class differences.
This work, published in the April issue of Social Science and Medicine, shows that more divided societies are less healthy societies.
While improvements in material living standards remain important in poorer countries, in richer developed societies what matters is relative income, social class differentiation and the scale of the problems of social exclusion and relative deprivation.
Both Britain and the United States perform badly in the international life expectancy league tables because they are among the more unequal countries. In the USA income differences continue to widen, while in Britain the Blair government has only just started to undo any of the dramatic increases in inequality which took place under Thatcher and Major.
Notes to editors: The report Income Inequality and Health: A Review and Explanation of the Evidence, by Professor Richard Wilkinson and Dr Kate Pickett is published in Social Science and Medicine 2006; 62:1786–84.
The University of Nottingham undertakes world-changing research and provides teaching of the highest quality. Ranked in the THES World Top 100 Universities, its academics have won two Nobel Prizes since 2003. An international institution, the University has campuses in the United Kingdom, Malaysia and China.
More information is available from Professor Richard Wilkinson on +44 (0)1904 744 755, richard.wilkinson@nottingham.ac.uk or Emma Thorne, Media Relations Manager in the Public Affairs Office at The University of Nottingham, on +44 (0)115 951 5793, emma.thorne@nottingham.ac.uk
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