The health status of employed Europeans varies according to their socio-economic category. In France, given a comparable age and gender structure, the least qualified employees and qualified blue-collar workers are in poorer health than the rest of the population: more of them declare a deteriorated state of health and are more frequently affected by depressive syndromes, disability, overweight or obesity. They also smoke more than other, more highly qualified, employed people. This observation of social inequalities in health within the working population is not specific to France; however, the gaps between socio-economic categories are often wider here than in other European countries.

These social inequalities in health are sometimes more marked in Northern and Western Europe than in Southern and Eastern Europe. This is particularly true of depressive syndromes, where blue-collar and low-skilled workers are much more affected than managers and people in intellectual and scientific professions. In all the European countries surveyed, smoking rates decline with job qualification. Northern European countries have the lowest proportion of daily smokers. Furthermore, in almost all European countries, senior executives and people in intellectual and scientific professions declare that they drink alcohol more frequently each week than other socio-economic categories.