Author: Richard G. Wilkinson. Among the developed countries it is not the richest societies that have the best health, but those that have the smallest income differences between the rich and poor. Inequality and relative poverty have absolute effects: they increase death rates. But why? How can smaller income differences raise average life expectancy? Using examples from the USA, Britain, Japan and Eastern Europe and bringing together evidence from the social and medical sciences, Unhealthy Societies provides the explanation.
