Helsinki (05.12.2011 - Juhani Artto) The life expectancy increased from 1988 to 2007 in all income quintiles except for the lowest one which has effectively been stagnant since the early 1990s. These trends have led to an alarming disparity in life expectancy between the highest and the lowest quintiles.
At the age of 35, the disparity widened from 7.4 to 12.5 years among men and from 3.9 to 6.8 years among women. This is the major finding of a new study made at the University of Helsinki.
There was less of an increase in disparity between occupational social classes and no stagnation among manual workers was observed.
Source: the article on the study in Lääkärilehti: Tarkiainen-Martikainen-Laaksonen-Valkonen, Tuloluokkien väliset erot elinajanodotteessa ovat kasvaneet vuosina 1988–2007