ABSTRACT
The scale of the health differences within modern societies is surprising. A study which looked at differences in health in the 678 electoral wards of the Northern Region of England found that death rates were four times as high in the poorest 10 per cent of wards as they were in the richest 10 per cent (Phillimore et al. 1994). In the United States, a recent study of health in Harlem in New York found that at most ages death rates were higher there than in rural Bangladesh (McCord and Freeman 1990). In Brazil, where income differences are greater than in almost any other country, a study showed that infant mortality rates varied between different areas of the same city from 12 to 90 per 1,000 live births.
