What's Killing White American Women?

The Inquiry

• Episode: What's Killing White American Women?
• Website: The Inquiry
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p029399x/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:22:59
• Published: 2016-05-10 03:06

The rich world has got used to health and longevity getting better, and death rates falling – for everyone. But over the past few years data has been accumulating which suggests that this trend has stopped for poorly educated, white Americans. And for one group in particular - middle-aged women – death rates are going up. It’s a shocking finding, meaning many will die at a younger age than their mothers. What’s happening? Certainly, life is tough for many low-income American families. “What the data look like,” says the economist Paul Krugman, “is a society gripped by despair, with a surge of unhealthy behaviours and an epidemic of drugs.” Is he right? Are the conditions of working class life in America killing white women?

Presenter: James Fletcher

(Image: A cemetery in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Credit: Getty Images)