ABSTRACT
The general goal of the welfare state is to improve its citizens’ possibilities of leading a good life, which is often understood as being able to avoid bad conditions. To be able to perform one’s daily activities, i.e. to enjoy reasonably good health, is certainly a fundamental prerequisite for leading a good life (Allardt 1975; Johansson 1979; Erikson 1992). It may therefore be argued that levels and trends in morbidity and mortality provide essential evidence for evaluating the performance of welfare states. This is also reflected in the frequent use of infant mortality rates and life expectancies in broad international comparisons of welfare. The fact that people’s social positions are linked to their morbidity and mortality risk in a systematic way means that it is not sufficient to study overall levels of ill health only. There must be additional focus on health inequalities as revealed by the distribution of ill health between population groups.
