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# India's wealth gap in adult mortality has barely narrowed across two decades
- URL: https://www.coios.me/india-s-wealth-gap-in-adult-mortality-has-barely-narrowed/
- Published: 2026-09-15T21:41:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T21:41:46.000Z
- Description: Across three National Family Health Survey rounds from 1998–1999 to 2019–2021, adult mortality risk at ages 15–59 in India remained about 60% lower for men and 40% lower for women in the richest households than the poorest, with caste differentials only marginally reduced.
- Author: Daniel Ryan
- Tags: Healthcare today, Inequalities in health and length of life, India, #peer-reviewed, #confirms, #item

Using three rounds of India's National Family Health Survey, the authors estimated the probability of death between ages 15 and 59 by caste, religion and wealth quintile, and fitted Cox models adjusting for economic position and region. Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe adults had consistently higher mortality than upper-caste Hindus in both sexes, though the gap narrowed once wealth and region were controlled. The wealth gradient was unchanged across rounds: mortality risk was roughly 60% lower for men and 40% lower for women in the richest versus poorest households.

*Why it is interesting: Shows a wealth gradient in working-age mortality that has not moved in over twenty years, in a country with no usable death registration for this purpose.*

Source

[Demographic Research, 2026-09-14](https://www.demographic-research.org/articles/volume/55/16?ref=coios.me#ref=rss)

Type

Peer-reviewed article

Design

Survey-based mortality estimation and Cox models, three National Family Health Survey rounds, 1998–1999, 2015–2016 and 2019–2021

Verdict

Confirms prior evidence

Driver

[Inequalities in health and length of life](https://www.coios.me/d-health-inequality/)