We analyze the association between mortality, income inequality and race in the United States using relatively recent data on 3102 counties. We find that income inequality has an independent association with mortality and this is not driven by inequality between races. Per capita income, socio-economic and demographic factors, access to healthcare, social capital and exposure to pollution, while important in explaining mortality, are not sufficient to explain the statistical association between inequality and mortality and between the presence of African Americans and greater mortality. When examined separately, black and white mortalities seem to be associated with fundamentally different factors and overall whites tend to gain from income inequality whereas blacks stand to lose from it.

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