11. Income inequality affects health.

A comparatively new line of research indicates that health is influenced not only by absolute levels of wealth, but also by relative levels of wealth. Wilkinson first reported that countries with high levels of income inequality have higher death rates than countries in which income is more evenly distributed in the population.⁵¹ In this country, Lynch, Kaplan and colleagues have similarly found that states and regions with greater distances between rich and poor have poorer health outcomes than those with less income dispersion.⁵²

Income inequality is an important issue for California — only four states have a greater disparity of income between the rich and poor; and between 1969 and 1989, inequality increased by a greater degree in California than in any state except Michigan.⁵³ These findings pose important questions about how and why large gaps between the rich and poor influence health. The considerable numbers of research studies being launched to address this finding⁵⁴ will doubtless elucidate important pathways through which income distribution affects communities, social networks and service systems to ultimately have an impact upon the health of the overall population.