The impact of regional income inequality on residents’ health in China

¹ School of Humanities, Social Sciences & Law, Harbin Institute of Technology, Heilongjiang, China
² School of Economics and Finance, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

^a Corresponding author: 867257258@qq.com
^b Corresponding author: 2394732086@qq.com

Abstract

Since the reform and opening up, China’s economy has been developing, residents’ income has been increasing, people’s health awareness has also been building up, and the health situation has gradually improved. However, with the development of Chinese economy, the problem of income inequality also follows, which has an impact on the health of Chinese residents. In particular, the imbalance of regional economic development and the difference between urban and rural residents’ disposable income inequality have a negative impact on the health of residents, which is not conducive to sustainable economic development and social harmony and stability. This paper analyzes the correlation between regional income inequality and residents’ health status, uses descriptive statistical analysis and principal component analysis to do empirical analysis on the relationship between regional income inequality and residents’ health status, and selects the data from “China Health Statistics Yearbook 2019”. The results of empirical analysis show that regional income inequality has an impact on the health of residents in China. The health level of residents in high-income areas is higher than that in low-income areas. The economic development of the eastern and northern regions is better than that of the central and western regions, and the health status of the residents in the eastern and northern regions is better than that in the central and western regions. In addition, urban-rural income inequality also has an impact on the health of residents. The data show that the health status of urban residents is better than that of rural residents. It can be seen that there is a positive correlation between income level and residents’ health level, and a negative correlation between income inequality and residents’ health level. That is, the higher the income, the higher the health level of residents, the lower the income, the lower the health level of residents; the higher the degree of income inequality, the worse the health status of residents, and it is not conducive to the overall improvement of the health level of residents.