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The Guardian | Friday 13 March 2009 The Guardian | Friday 13 March 2009 21

Snapshot The income gap

Inequality: mother of all evils? 1998

2000
141

2001
Inequality in 2006
as measured by the Gini
coefficient is 40% higher
than it was in 1974
2006
140
139 139
More money won’t fix broken Britain, but sharing the money could. That is the conclusion of The Spirit Level, 1999 2005
a groundbreaking study which concludes inequality is at root of all society’s problems, from violent crime to 138 138
2002
teenage pregnancy. On these pages Tom Clark presents the evidence so you can make up your own mind Major 137
1991 1997 2004

1
136 136 136
1990 1992 1993 2003
135 135 135 Blair 135
tually benefit all. Getting richer used to
Income gap make societies healthier and happier. 1995 1996

league table
Income gaps
How many times richer are the
8.5 The Spirit Level – a new book by Richard
Wilkinson and Kate Pickett – claims this
133 133
1994
richest fifth than the poorest fifth 8.0 is no longer true for developed coun-
UK nudging top tries. The wealth of nations has little 132
7.0 7.2 bearing on the great list of social evils
6.7 6.8 6.8 examined. But in (almost) every case
6.1 6.2 there is a link with inequality. 1989
5.6 5.6 5.6 5.7 Take health. The (unequal) Ameri-
130
Who is the unfairest of them all? The 5.2 5.3 cans have one third more income than
chart shows Britain is near the top of
4.6 4.8 the (equal) Japanese, and yet they die
the table. The number for each country 4.3 nearly five years earlier. It is well
shows how many times more income
3.7 3.9 4.0 established that the bottom of the 1988
the richest fifth have than the poorest. 3.4 heap is an unhealthy place to be. But
128
The UK ratio of 7.2:1 is one of the highest the Spirit Level shows that inequality
in the free world. Other market econo- does damage right up the social scale.

New Zealand
Netherlands

Switzerland
mies – such as Finland and Japan – have What is true of individual sickness also
Denmark

Germany

Australia

Portugal
only half as much inequality. applies to social diseases, such as illit-
Belgium
Sweden
Norway
Finland

Canada
Austria

Ireland

Greece
France
Japan

Britain is now used to being unequal, eracy and crime. Unequal societies have
Spain

Israel
Italy
run for years on the assumption that more prison, more mental illness and

UK

US
rising prosperity at the top would even- more illiteracy – often many times more.

2
Combined social problem score US
Inflated inequality Percent with any mental illness Wider income gaps Percent obese
Depressed populations Wider waists
More problems

US 30 US
25
Greece

Unequal societies record around three times Australia UK In unequal countries more than twice as
more mental illness than equal ones. Anxiety many adults are obese.
disorders and addictions are among the condi- Canada New Zealand
Odd couples 20 UK
Economic Japan and Sweden are chalk and cheese
1987 tions most closely linked to the income gap.
France
Is it down to national diets? No. Swedes are
known for meatballs and Belgians for choco-
20
Finland Germany

divides societies. Sweden has a big welfare state

and a progressive stance on women’s rights,
121 Is it just that diagnosis is more common in
the English speaking world? Almost certainly
lates and waffles, yet both are trimmer than
the less equal Greeks, who get little benefit Austria
Ireland Australia
New Zealand
Portugal

15 Netherlands Denmark
Portugal France
Social whereas in Japan the government is a small
spender by international standards and
not. Although cultural differences can never
be eliminated, the data mostly comes from
from their famed Mediterranean food. Within
each rich country there is a marked link Norway
Belgium

Netherlands
Canada
Spain
World Health Organisation diagnostic tests between low social status and obesity, and
wounds
traditional gender divides remain important. Belgium 10
which ask comparable questions in different Finnish research has established that people Sweden Italy
But in both countries incomes are unusually
10
evenly spread, and the chart reveals that both UK countries and then deploy common criteria to who eat to deal with anxiety are more likely
Germany Spain
suffer from fewer social problems than other assess rates of mental illness. In unequal soci- Italy
to reach for junk food. There is also evidence Switzerland
Japan
industrial societies. eties, such as Britain and the US, psychiatric that those afflicted by chronic stress are
This combined score (right) tots up 10 Japan
prescriptions are also particularly high. particularly likely to deposit fat on the belly,
social sicknesses – among them homi- 5 where it does most damage. 0
cide, infant mortality and lack of trust More equal More unequal More equal More unequal
– counting each as equally important. Greece
The chart shows that, overall, unequal Ireland New Zealand 1986
countries have more problems. On the
France 116 Stratified societies Prisoners per 100,000 (log scale) Reproducing deprivation Births per 1,000 women aged 15-19 years
right hand page we focus on several of Australia Punishing attitudes Teen pregnancies US
Austria 50
the problems that feed into the score,
and consider them separately. Canada
Germany Italy US
Denmark Prison populations are up to eight times Economically polarised societies see up to
400 40
Odd couples bigger in stratified societies as in equal ones. 10 times more births to teenagers than those
Spain
Belgium Singapore that are more equal.
Finland Switzerland Spain and Portugal are Mediterranean neigh- Is it just differences in crime? In small part
Netherlands bours with many cultural connections and yes, as crimes such as murder are more com- Is it down to moral or religious culture? It 30 UK
close parallels in their recent history – both mon in unequal countries. But only 12% of the Israel seems unlikely, not least because religion can
Norway 1985 150
New Zealand
New Zealand
democratised in the 1970s after the fall of rise in US incarceration since 1980 is down to cut both ways – bringing pressures for sexual
authoritarian regimes. One difference is that 112 crime, and the recent doubling of England’s
Austria
Spain Canada
France
UK
Australia
Portugal
abstinence but also discouraging abortion. If
Canada Portugal
Fewer problems

Sweden Spain is the more ethnically diverse, and prison population has mostly occurred while that bar increases the prevalence of teenage 20
Sweden Germany Switz. Italy
diversity is sometimes said to strain social Ireland Australia
crime has been declining. The real explana- births in unequal Catholic countries, such
Finland Ireland
solidarity. But Spain is mid-table in the tion is that sentences are harsher in unequal 50
Belgium
Netherlands as Portugal and Ireland, it seems not to in Austria
Norway Norway Germany
inequality league while Portugal is near the countries. Separate analysis shows that more Denmark somewhat more level societies, such as Spain. 10 Belgium Greece
Japan France
top. And the chart shows that the Portuguese unequal American states more often retain In pious America abstinence campaigns such Finland
Denmark Spain
side of the Iberian peninsula has many more the death penalty. as True Love Waits enjoy a high profile and Italy
Japan Greece Japan Sweden Netherlands
social problems. yet teenage births are far in excess of those in Switzerland
20 0
secular Europe.
More equal More unequal More equal More unequal
More equal More unequal

3 4
1983 1984 Equality lowers death rates for all
social classes
107 107 Deaths per 1,000 working-age men,
historic data
1981
educated families are more literate in The Spirit Level
The widening 105 The price is Literacy scores are higher for everyone the more equal countries. At every level
7.8 Why More Equal
1982 in more equal countries 323 of parental education, the rank order- ­Societies Almost
gap 104 paid by the ing of countries is preserved – with Always Do Better, by
Richard Wilkinson
319 the more equal countries doing better.
How the divide Thatcher 1980
middle class Cross-national comparisons in mortal- 5.3
and Kate Pickett, is

103 ity also suggest the higher classes pay 4.8

Published by Allen

opened up British inequality index too 318 a price for inequality. The chart on the
Lane, price £20. To
order a copy for £18
1974 = 100 right, for instance, shows death rates for 3.7 with free UK p&p go
working age men in (unequal) Britain to guardian.co.uk/
1979 275
That Britain has seen inequality rise pension. Under Margaret Thatcher year for which data is available, it was It is hardly news that being poor is asso- Finland 312 are more graded by social class than in bookshop, or call
since the 1980s is widely appreci- 101 (1979-90) the income gap widened to a close to a record high. ciated with disadvantage, but the real (equal) Sweden. But it also shows death 0330 333 6846. You
ated, but it is less well known that the 1974 chasm, as top pay raced ahead and most Just as the financial crisis has stoked twist in the Spirit Level is its claim that rates are higher overall, including for the England England can see more of the
Wilson evidence from the

100
­widening of the income gap was the benefits were frozen. Tax and benefit up resentment about top pay, the Spirit the affluent also miss out in unequal top social class. Exactly the same thing & Wales Sweden & Wales Sweden book on the website
sharpest in the developed world. This changes alone account for about a third Level provides new grounds for moving societies. The chart on the right pro- 265 Belgium is true when infant mortality rates in Lowest social class Top social class of the Equality Trust,
series from the Institute for Fiscal Stud- of the total increase. beyond the New Labour logic that holds vides one piece of evidence. It records Britain and Sweden are compared. www.equalitytrust.
ies ­measures the spread of incomes over Callaghan During the early 1990s recession there is no need to worry about overall the literacy scores in four ­countries in right across the range of poor and rich org.uk
time. It is measured using the so-called ­inequality levelled off for a time, but inequality, as distinct from poverty. descending order of inequality: US, UK, Could it all be down to differences in American ­counties, and discovers that
Gini coefficient, with its value for each with recovery it soon picked up again. The results may be of most obvious Belgium and Finland. health and education systems? while living in rich counties is always
year expressed as a proportion of the New Labour has funnelled money interest to the egalitarian left, but they The chart shows that in all four It seems unlikely, though with healthier, residents in unequal states
reading for 1974. The fact inequality rose
1975 1976 towards the poorest, lifting many should also worry liberals concerned ­countries people born of more educated ­education it can be hard to unpick cause live less long than those living in equally
more rapidly than elsewhere in Europe 97 97 ­children and pensioners out of poverty with equal opportunity. For social parents are more literate than those 246 UK from effect because more equal coun- rich ­counties in more equal states.
­suggests the rise was partly down to and closing the income gap between the mobility turns out to be undermined from uneducated homes. No surprise tries invest more. With healthcare, the Exactly why the affluent also suffer
political decisions as opposed to global middle and the poor. But, in Peter Man- by income inequality – poor youngsters there, nor in the fact that the effect of international statistics suggest extra from inequality is still unproven, but
forces such as trade or technology. delson’s phrase, the party was intensely find it easier to climb the social ladder parental education on reading is most expenditure has almost no effect on one possibility is that an unequal ­society
The chart shows how inequality was 1977 1978 relaxed about the wealthy, and, perhaps when there is less distance to travel. marked in the most unequal societies – average life expectancy. Besides, the creates a great fear of losing social
compressed during the 1974-79 Labour 95 95 as a result, they have raced ever further Nor can more progressive Tories – who thus the slope of the line is steeper for 233 US scores from the
international adult
idea that ­inequality increases mortal- standing, a fear which takes its toll on
government, an economically ­turbulent ahead of the middle. The combined are ­frantically hunting out new ways to American than Finnish people. More literacy survey ity for the rich as well as the poor is everybody.
era, but also a time of ­egalitarian effect has been to leave ­inequality repair the social fabric – afford to ignore strikingly, though, the chart also shows not some quirk of the countries we
incomes policies and increases in the broadly stable. By 2006, the most recent the analysis. that even those from the most highly Least educated parents Most educated parents have focused on. The Spirit Level looks Leader comment, page 34 ≥