1. Geographical inequalities in health across the UK

3. Geographical Inequalities The Widening Gap
Daily Record
‘’Shock report reveals
the poorest places in
Britain are all in
Scotland’’
This report was published (1999) by the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research.
The study was carried out by Bristol University into health inequalities.
Contributors included doctors, geographers and experts on government policy.
They studied the statistics (health rates, education, earnings, unemployment and life expectancy) in all the constituencies in the UK and produced a league table in terms of wealth and health.

4. Geographical Inequalities The Widening Gap
Findings
They confirmed that evidence showed there was a north-south divide in health.
That this gap was widening.
That the six worst health areas in the UK were in Glasgow.
And that the main cause was poverty.

5. Geographical Findings The Widening Gap
The Report identified that geographical inequalities in ill health existed in the UK on national and regional levels.
A north-south divide exists in terms of the wealth and health of the people.
The poorest places in the UK were in Scotland.
The worst six areas in terms of wealth and health were in Glasgow.
A causal link existed between poverty and ill health.

6. Geographical Inequalities
The Widening Gap
Page 34, UK Social Issues ISBN X

7. Evidence of Inequalities Regional Scale (BBC News 2 December 1999)
Death rates (SMR
<65)
Infant mortality rates
Children in poverty
Glasgow Shettleston
234
208
59%
Glasgow Springburn
217
202
60%
Glasgow Maryhill
196
188
63%
Glasgow Pollock
187
173
52%
Glasgow Anniesland
181
176
51%
Glasgow Baillieston
180
195
54%
Manchester Central
189
58% UK
100
27%
Worst Health

8. Evidence of Inequalities Regional Scale (BBC News 2 December 1999)
Best Health
Death rates (SMR
<65)
Infant mortality rates
Children in poverty
Wokingham 65 51 5%
Woodspring 60
12%
Romsey 58
South Cambridgeshire 66
13%
South Norfolk 69 57
15%
Northavon 70 50
11%
Buckingham 71 UK
100
27%

9. Geographical Inequalities The Widening Gap
Findings
Children living in the worst households were twice as likely to die in infancy as their peers in wealthy areas in the SE of England.
At school they were 1.5 times more likely to fail exams and 3.6 times more likely to fail to get a job when they left. Those who did get jobs earned 25% less.

10. Edinburgh: 18% of GDP Glasgow: 34% of GDP Glasgow / Edinburgh
Their findings not only identified a north-south divide but also differences between cities.
Together, Glasgow and Edinburgh produced more than 52% of Scotland’s GDP in 1999.
But GDP per capita for Edinburgh was 33% higher than that for Glasgow - in other words, average incomes in Edinburgh are higher.
This reflects an era of high unemployment in Glasgow during the ’70s and ’80s and although the situation has much improved in Glasgow, it has left an accumulated legacy of poverty, social exclusion and ill health.
On average, people in Edinburgh live 4 years longer than people in Glasgow.

11. The Widening Gap (1999) Regional Difference
The Report identified the worst 6 areas in terms of ill health as being in Glasgow.
The areas included: Shettleston, Springburn, Maryhill, Pollock, Anniesland, Baillieston and Govan.
Glasgow had Scotland’s
highest infant mortality rate of 103/1000
34% of people live in poverty
18.5% of men are unemployed, 13% chronically sick
in one year, 181 people will have died under the age of 65, 63% of these deaths could have been avoided.
Glasgow

12. Drumchapel
Bearsden
The Report also highlighted the huge gap in the health of people living in the poorest areas and wealthiest areas of Glasgow.

13. Two babies born one mile apart
One in Drumchapel and the other in Kelvinside. The baby born in Drumchapel will most likely be:
born underweight
live ten years less
twice as likely to die before its first birthday
three times more likely to die of heart disease or bronchitis
three times more likely to die of breast cancer
twice as likely to die of lung cancer
four times more likely to suffer from a psychiatric disorder
2.5 times more likely to die before 65.
Drumchapel
Kelvinside

14. Recommendation
The publication of The Widening Gap led to immediate calls for urgent action to ease the problems of poverty in Glasgow and this resulted in an increased allocation of funding to Glasgow, especially the most deprived areas.
The Report concluded that ‘’the government would not be able to reduce inequalities across the UK unless it tackled poverty through the redistribution of income and wealth’’.