英国人更长寿更富裕的英语美文
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.
英国国家统计局局长卡连?邓内尔(Karen Dunnell)的一份报告显示，与20年前相比，今天的英国人寿命更长，素质更高，更加富裕，但最富裕与最贫穷人口之间的差距也有所扩大。
这是英国社会系列报告中的第一份。这份报告的结论是，英国在减少不平等状况方面取得了进展，例如女性薪酬和一些少数族裔的受教育情况等，但严重差距依然存在。
报告显示，英国有更多人受到精神失调的困扰;四分之一的儿童生活在单亲家庭，几乎是20年前的两倍;女性的平均收入仍比男性低13%。
另一方面，在2007年的普通中等教育证书(GCSE)考试中，有59%的学生获得了5个A至C的评分，而1996年的这一比例仅为45%;在工作年龄人口中，有工作者的比例从73%升至75%。此外，2006年出生的英国男性预期寿命为77岁，而1901年出生的男性只有45岁。女性的预期寿命也从49岁延长到81岁。
英国人的富裕程度也在提升。由于房价大幅上涨，实际家庭财富较1987年增长了116%。实际家庭可支配收入增长60%，而同期人均国内生产总值(GDP)的增幅为50%。
人均实际可支配收入从1979年的每周231英镑增至362英镑。但10%最富裕人口和10%最贫穷人口之间的收入差距却在拉大。10%最富裕人口的实际可支配收入从1979年的'每周408英镑增至734英镑，与最贫穷家庭的收入之比从3：1扩大至4：1。
1997年工党重新执政丝毫未能缩小以上差距。
此外，伦敦财政研究所(Institute for Fiscal Studies)对纳税申报单的分析显示，0.1%最富裕成年人的收入增幅是“中等收入者”的两倍。
对于最弱势的家庭而言，生活依旧艰难。邓内尔指出，在巴基斯坦和孟加拉国家庭中，有58%的儿童生活在贫困之中，而其他人口的这一比例为22%。
不过，英国国家统计局高级官员乔?格赖斯(Joe Grice)称，有资格享用免费校餐的儿童考试成绩最差，这一发现支持了去年公布的一份Joseph Rowntree研究报告的结论。该报告认为，英国白人男孩是学习成绩持续最差的人群。
在英国人口中，有大约90%为白种人，低于2001年的93%。在伦敦，这一比例降至65%。