Unequal Unhealthy

Inequality seems to make a society dysfunctional across a wide range of outcomes. Among the richest twenty or thirty countries the USA, the UK, and Portugal seem to be the least healthy and the most unequal. Japan and the Scandinavian countries have the most healthy people and the most equal.

Most of the important health and social problems of the rich world are more common in the more unequal societies. The difference between more and less equal societies are large. Problems are often three to ten times as common in the more unequal countries. The problems are common to the whole spectrum of the people in those societies. The problems apply to the whole population.