The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System asks hundreds of thousands of adults the same questions each year about their health. When their answers are sorted by household income, every chronic health condition shows increasing prevalence with lower income. The poorest Americans don't just fare a little worse. The cumulative effect puts their likelihood of experiencing poor general health 4 times higher compared to the wealthiest Americans.
In the chart below, each row shows the share of adults reporting a particular health outcome in 2024, by income groups. The poorest households earning under $20,000 a year to those in the highest income group earning above $75,000. Hover over any point for detail.
All 13 outcomes show the lowest-income group faring worst, without exception. COPD and stroke are nearly four times as common among the poorest group as the richest. The cumulative consequence of these chronic conditions is that an adult earning under $20,000 a year is more than four times as likely to report poor general health as one earning above $75,000.
To make the comparison clearer, the chart below shows the difference between the lowest-income and highest-income groups, in percentage points. The incidence of poor general health among the poorest group is 30 percentage points higher than the richest group, and more than 4 times as common. For every outcome, the poorest Americans are at least twice as likely to report the condition as the richest.
The gap isn't a fluke of one year. Plotting the incidence of each condition from 2014 to 2024 across all five income groups, the poorest band is always on top.