Britons are living longer, are better qualified and richer than they were 20 years ago but the gap between the very richest and poorest has widened, according to a report by Karen Dunnell, the national statistician.
The study, the first in a series of reports on society, concluded that progress had been made in reducing inequalities, such as pay for women and educational attainment for some ethnic minority groups, but serious disparities remained.
More people suffered from mental disorders; a quarter of children lived with a lone parent, almost double the proportion of 20 years ago; while women still earned 13 per cent less on average than men, it said.
On the other hand 59 per cent of pupils achieved five A-C grades in their GCSEs in 2007 compared with just 45 per cent in 1996, while the proportion of working age people with jobs had risen from 73 per cent to 75 per cent. Men born in 2006 moreover could expect to live to 77 compared with a life expectancy of just 45 for men born in 1901. Life expectancy for women had risen from 49 to 81.
We are richer too. Real household wealth rose by 116 per cent since 1987 boosted by big increases in property prices. Real household disposable income increased by 60 per cent compared with a 50 per cent rise in gross domestic product per head over the same period.
The average real disposable income since 1979 rose from ￡231 to ￡362 a week. But the gap between the poorest and richest 10 per cent had widened. Real disposable income of the richest 10 per cent, which in 1979 was three times that of the poorest families, had risen from ￡408 to ￡734 a week – four times the income of the poorest households.
The return of a Labour government in 1997 had failed to make any dent in this gap.
Moreover, the incomes of the richest 0.1 per cent of adults had risen at twice the rate of those on “middle incomes”, according to analysis of tax returns by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Life remains tough for the most disadvantaged families. Some 58 per cent of children in Pakistani and Bangladeshi households lived in poverty compared with 22 per cent for rest of the population, according to the national statistician.
Findings that children eligible for free school meals performed worst in exams, however, supported the conclusions of a Joseph Rowntree study, published last year, that British white boys were the most persistent low educational achievers, said Joe Grice, an executive director at the Office for National Statistics.
Some 90 per cent of the British population were white, compared with 93 per cent in 2001. The proportion fell to 65 per cent in London.
英國國家統計局局長卡連?鄧內爾(Karen Dunnell)的一份報告顯示，與20年前相比，今天的英國人壽命更長，素質更高，更加富裕，但最富裕與最貧窮人口之間的差距也有所擴大。
這是英國社會系列報告中的第一份。這份報告的結論是，英國在減少不平等狀況方面取得了進展，例如女性薪酬和一些少數族裔的受教育情況等，但嚴重差距依然存在。
報告顯示，英國有更多人受到精神失調的困擾;四分之一的兒童生活在單親家庭，幾乎是20年前的兩倍;女性的平均收入仍比男性低13%。
另一方面，在2007年的普通中等教育證書(GCSE)考試中，有59%的學生獲得了5個A至C的評分，而1996年的這一比例僅爲45%;在工作年齡人口中，有工作者的比例從73%升至75%。此外，2006年出生的英國男性預期壽命爲77歲，而1901年出生的男性只有45歲。女性的預期壽命也從49歲延長到81歲。
英國人的富裕程度也在提升。由於房價大幅上漲，實際家庭財富較1987年增長了116%。實際家庭可支配收入增長60%，而同期人均國內生產總值(GDP)的增幅爲50%。
人均實際可支配收入從1979年的每週231英鎊增至362英鎊。但10%最富裕人口和10%最貧窮人口之間的收入差距卻在拉大。10%最富裕人口的實際可支配收入從1979年的'每週408英鎊增至734英鎊，與最貧窮家庭的收入之比從3：1擴大至4：1。
1997年工黨重新執政絲毫未能縮小以上差距。
此外，倫敦財政研究所(Institute for Fiscal Studies)對納稅申報單的分析顯示，0.1%最富裕成年人的收入增幅是“中等收入者”的兩倍。
對於最弱勢的家庭而言，生活依舊艱難。鄧內爾指出，在巴基斯坦和孟加拉國家庭中，有58%的兒童生活在貧困之中，而其他人口的這一比例爲22%。
不過，英國國家統計局高級官員喬?格賴斯(Joe Grice)稱，有資格享用免費校餐的兒童考試成績最差，這一發現支持了去年公佈的一份Joseph Rowntree研究報告的結論。該報告認爲，英國白人男孩是學習成績持續最差的人羣。
在英國人口中，有大約90%爲白種人，低於2001年的93%。在倫敦，這一比例降至65%。
