The connection between socioeconomic status and well-being

Being healthy isn’t as simple as watching what you eat, getting your weekly exercise in, or navigating the world safely and smartly. So many factors—some of which you can’t necessarily control—dictate whether you face illness, how quickly you overcome that illness, and how often and severely you run into physical or mental health issues.

One factor that doesn’t get talked about enough is socioeconomic status—what’s outside your body that can influence your recovery or access to high-quality care.

To achieve true health equity, or a world where everyone has equal opportunity to reach the same positive outcomes, we must understand and tackle socioeconomic status and its relationship to health.

To make this complex topic digestible, we’ll walk through the definition of socioeconomic status and the various ways it impacts one’s well-being.

What is socioeconomic status?

Socioeconomic status refers to a combination of a person’s income level (how much they make or the kind of occupation they have), education level (how much and the type of schooling they’ve completed), and financial security (how much they have saved and invested on their own or through generational wealth). It can also encompass subjective factors like social class (your perceived status within your community or society, or ability to move up and down the “social ladder”).

Your socioeconomic status plays a large role in the quality of life you lead—how comfortable you are and feel, and the things you’re able to attain to maintain comfort.

How socioeconomic status impacts your health and well-being

Consider the money, connections, and knowledge that go into healthcare. It’s no surprise, then, that socioeconomic status is strongly linked to health and well-being.

The link between education level and health

Some research suggests that the higher your education level, the more likely you are to report living a longer and healthier life when compared to someone at a lower education level. For example, a 2020 study by the Yale School of Medicine and University of Alabama-Birmingham—which followed study subjects for 29 years, starting in the mid-1980s—found that about 13% of participants with a high school degree or less education died during the duration of the study, compared with only around 5% of college graduates.

There could be a number of reasons why this is the case: With more education, you might have strong health literacy, meaning you understand medical information and risks, and can make informed decisions about your and others’ health. You might also be able to get a job that puts you at a high income level or gives you ample potential to make good money, ensuring you can confidently cover medical costs or afford high-quality care. Alternatively, your job could have substantial healthcare coverage, enabling you to more easily access and pay for procedures or treatments that are cost-prohibitive for others.

The link between income level (or financial security) and health 

Income disparities continue to be a major problem in the United States, which in turn creates serious health disparities.

A 2020 Pew Research report found that upper-income families had over seven times as much wealth as middle-income families, and 75 times as much wealth as lower-income families.

The Commonwealth Fund 2023 International Health Policy Survey found that 46% of adults with lower-than-average or average incomes reported a cost-related healthcare access problem—be it having a medical issue but not visiting a doctor, skipping a medical test, treatment, or follow-up that was recommended by a doctor, not filling a prescription, or skipping medication doses—versus just 29% of higher income adults. The same percentage (46%) of lower-than-average and average income adults reported skipping getting dental care or dental checkups because of the cost, compared to only 24% of higher income adults.

According to the same survey, 21% of lower-than-average and average income adults did not get mental health services when they needed them because of the cost—over double the percentage of higher income adults.

Access to and frequent use of healthcare isn’t the only thing held back by income: Studies have shown that because of correlated factors to income level like nutrition, living conditions, and stress, poorer communities have shorter lifespans and are at a higher risk of illness or death. Children of lower-income families, too, have been shown to experience more growth and developmental delays.

Stress related to your financial situation can also influence your health: For example, a 2020 study found that participants who had difficulty paying bills were more likely to have high levels of depressive symptoms.

The link between occupation or type of work and health

If your workplace exposes you to certain chemicals or poses a risk of injury, that all contributes to your health journey. How secure and stressful your job is can also impact your mental and physical health over time, along with the benefits, work-life balance, and healthy environment it does or doesn’t provide.

A recent study using data from between 2000 and 2002, for example, found that participants with work‐related stress had lower odds of having average cardiovascular health scores compared with participants without work‐related stress.

In another 2023 workplace survey, respondents who reported being in a toxic workplace were more than twice as likely to also report that their overall mental health was fair or poor than those who did not report being in a toxic workplace.

Another consideration is that certain types of jobs may not make it easy for individuals to access care. For an array of reasons—whether it’s because they’re driving a delivery truck for hours on end, stocking shelves and rarely near a phone or computer, or working a call center job in which they need to be available for their entire shift—some people are not able to take the time to be on hold while they schedule appointment, let alone leave work to visit the doctor for a regular check-up or to address a specific health issue. In other words, the nature of their work makes it harder to take care of themselves.

Employers and benefits providers are major players in socioeconomic status—without good support systems such as these, individuals can’t reach education and financial heights, and thus keep their bodies and minds strong.

By investing in the right tools and resources as organizations, we can begin to improve the social and health landscape for all.

The information contained on this page is for informational purposes only. No material is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.