Econintersect: Across all the developed countries there is no correlation between average or median incomes with such things as citizens’ health, violent crime and education performance. However, including developed countries with a wide range of total incomes per capita, there are strong correlations with inequality of income distribution for these and many other measurements of the well being of a society.From The Raw Story:
University of Nottingham professor Richard Wilkinson showed during a recent TEDTalk that economic inequality was associated with the health and basic values of a society. There is no correlation between a country’s economic prosperity and the average lifespan of its citizens, he explained. But as economic inequality increases, overall measures of health decline, and it is not just the poor who are affected.
Sources: The Raw Story and Ted Talks