Economic change + patterns of social inequality

• 5 indices used to measure social inequality:

  • Housing
  • Education
  • Healthcare
  • Employment
  • Access to services
• World bank's definition of absolute poverty is $1.90 / day
• Relative poverty relates the level of poverty to the distribution of income across the whole population of a country
• 13 million people in the UK are in relative poverty, including 3.5 million children
• Quality of accommodation is closely related to income
• Housing tenure is the ownership structure of housing e.g. tenancy, mortgage etc
• Squatter settlements are where people have no legal right to the land they occupy
• The acquisition of skills can be underestimated if only formal qualifications are measured
• Deprivation refers to a general lack of resources and opportunities
• There is a strong association between poverty and ill-health
• Number of doctors per 1000 people is often used to describe health inequality
• Healthcare is also a matter of social behaviour and lifestyle e.g smoking, alcohol, vaccinations
• 2 billion people work informally
• 2.5 billion have no access to basic sanitation services
• The ability to purchase goods and services is fundamental to social wellbeing
• Disposable income is an important factor when measuring wealth inequality
• Niger has a literacy rate of 19%
• North Korea is reported to have a literacy rate of 100%. However, corruption of data by governments is likely.
• 1 in 6 adults in England have poor literacy skills
• UK tuition feed places pressure on lower income groups to access higher education
• Depending on where you live, the level of medical provision through the NHS varies. This is often referred to as the postcode lottery