Differences in self-reported health between low- and high-income groups in pre-retirement age and retirement age. A cohort study based on the European Social Survey

Using data from the European Social Survey 1 (2002) and 9 (2018) we show the development of self-rated health of older persons in 17 countries. We find a considerable increase of older persons reporting good or very good health between 2002 and 2018; this increase is similar in all groups examined. Absolute differences between income groups remained vastly stable. Further, in 2018 the high-income tercile of those between 65 and 80 years still reported better health than the low-income tercile of those between 49 and 64 years. Overall, self-rated health seems to have improved in Europe but there are still signs of a considerable gap between low-income groups and high-income groups.