ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the important issue of continuing class inequalities in life expectancy and mortality at different ages and a preliminary assessment of the part that occupation plays. Risk of early death is associated with social class - the life chances of people in manual jobs, especially unskilled, are much worse than the life chances of people in non-manual jobs, especially employers and professionals. Using evidence from death certificates collated by the Registrar General for 1969-73, the Black Report of 1980 showed that the class differential applied to both males and females, at all ages and for the major causes of death. In common usage, ‘a risk’ means the probability of an adverse event or a hazard that might be encountered in the future. It may be a natural event, like an earthquake. It may be imposed by other people on those who bear the risk, as unsafe working conditions often are.
