How Are Income and Wealth Linked to Health and Longevity?

The greater one’s income, the lower one’s likelihood of disease and premature death. Americans at all income levels are less healthy than those with higher incomes. Not only is income associated with better health, but wealth affects health as well. Though it is easy to imagine how health is tied to income for the very poor or the very rich, the relationship between income and health is a gradient: discrepancies exist at every level of the economic ladder. Middle-class Americans are healthier than those living in or near poverty, but they are less healthy than the upper class.