Since the 1970s the premature death rate has fallen across all social groups for both men and women. However for men the death rate has fallen faster in non-manual workers than in manual workers, that is the difference in death rates increased between these groups. At the end of the 1980s the premature death rate from CHD for male manual workers was 58% higher than for male non-manual workers. The premature death rate from CHD for female manual workers was more than twice as high as that for female non-manual workers. Towards the end of the 1990s the premature death rate was 50% higher for manual male workers compared with their non-manual counterparts. During the same period the premature death rate for female manual workers was 73% higher than their non-manual counterparts.

In 1997 it was estimated that each year 5,000 lives and 47,000 working years are lost in men aged 20 to 64 years due to social class inequalities in CHD death rates.. Just under one in three of all deaths under 65 years resulting from social class inequalities are due to CHD. In England and Wales there is a strong positive relationship between deaths from circulatory diseases and levels of deprivation This pattern is clear in CHD and stroke for both men and women.

To help reduce these socio-economic inequalities, CVD inequalities targets have been introduced in England, Scotland and Wales. Data from the Central Health Monitoring Unit show that in England there has been clear progress towards this target: the absolute gap in CVD mortality between the fifth most deprived areas and the population as a whole, in people aged under 75, has fallen by just over 20% since the mid-1990s.