Why is Equality Better for Everyone?

Thursday 2nd March 2023
With Public Health Network Cymru

Comparing a range of social and health issues in rich countries including mental health, education, obesity, trust and community life, violence, and child well-being, societies that do well on one issue tend to do well on the others. Equally, societies that do badly on one issue do badly on all of them. What accounts for the difference? The key is the amount of inequality in each society. The more unequal a society is, the more ill health and social problems it has.

In this webinar Professor Richard Wilkinson, co-author of The Spirit Level and The Inner Level gave his perspective on why material inequalities make people more antisocial, make status and class divisions more powerful, increase stress, damage physical and mental health and are a barrier to sustainability.

Further information about the speaker:

Professor Richard Wilkinson has played a formative role in international research on the social determinants of health and on the societal effects of income inequality. He studied economic history at LSE before training in epidemiology. He is Professor Emeritus of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham Medical School, Honorary Professor at UCL and a Visiting Professor at the University of York. Richard co-wrote The Spirit Level with Kate Pickett which won the 2011 Political Studies Association Publication of the Year Award and the 2010 Bristol Festival of Ideas Prize. Richard is also a co-founder of The Equality Trust.