Health Inequalities
Death rates highest for routine workers
Age-standardised mortality rate by NS-SEC: men aged 25-64, England and Wales 2001-03
Men in routine jobs are 2.8 times more likely to die between the ages of 25 and 64 years than men in higher managerial posts. From 2001 to 2003, the mortality rate of working age men in routine occupations in England and Wales was 513 deaths per 100,000 compared to only 182 among large employers and higher managers.
The chart shows a clear social gradient in the risk of premature death from the most advantaged occupational group to the most disadvantaged, with each successive (more disadvantaged) class of the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC) having a significantly greater mortality rate than the preceding class.
The NS-SEC classes are defined by occupational characteristics such as job control and security of employment, not by income or broader concepts of social position. However, there is a historical relationship between all these factors, and between material disadvantage and health.
Although the risk of death for all men increases with age, the difference between socio-economic groups decreases. Men in routine occupations were 4.1 times more likely to die than those in higher managerial occupations at age 25-29, falling to 2.3 times more likely at age 60-64.
These figures show little change in health inequalities since 1991-93, when working age men in unskilled manual jobs had 2.9 times the risk of death of those in professional occupations.
Sources: 2001 Census, Mid-year population estimates, Death registrations, ONS Longitudinal Study; Office for National Statistics
Notes: Mortality rates, except those for specific ages, are directly age-standardised mortality rates per 100,000 men aged 25-64 using the European Standard Population. Age-standardisation allows comparison between populations with different age structures.
The methods used to produce these figures are described in White C, Glickman M, Johnson B, Corbin T (2007) ‘Social inequalities in adult male mortality by the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification, England and Wales, 2001-03’ Health Statistics Quarterly 36, 9-23 – see Related Links.
Figures for 1991-93 are based on analysis by Registrar General’s Social Class, not NS-SEC, and can be found in Drever F, Whitehead M (1997) Health Inequalities Decennial Supplement, Series DS No. 15, The Stationery Office: London.
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