In a modern and strong society, united by core values of fairness and compassion, it is vital that everyone gains from a national drive for better health. A healthy country would be one where health was not dictated by accident of birth and childhood experience. But not all have shared in growing prosperity. Surveys over the last few years have shown a growing gap in wealth between the best and worst off people and the best and worst off neighbourhoods. The poorest in our society are hit harder than the well off by most of the major causes of death.
Poor people are ill more often and die sooner.
In the past this social dimension was frequently neglected. Poor health was put down to bad luck, unhealthy behaviour, or inadequate healthcare. Yet it is clear that people's chances of a long and healthy life are basically influenced by how well off they are, where they live and by their ethnic background. A child's chance of surviving to its first birthday relates to the country of birth of its mother, as figure 3 shows. Figure 4 shows how men's social class can influence their chances of dying from lung cancer before the age of retirement.