Table 1.

Baseline Characteristics of Participants in ELSA and HRS, England and the United States (2002–2003)

	Men		Women
	England (ELSA)	United States (HRS)	England (ELSA)	United States (HRS)
Sample size	4,980	6,805	5,774	7,998
Mean age (SD)	64.3 (10.5)	66.6 (11.0)	65.7 (11.7)	66.5 (11.4)
Ethnicity	%	%	%	%
White	96.7	88.2	98.1	86.3
Social class
Low grade	52.4	28.2	31.1	11.7
Middle grade	10.3	37.0	46.5	58.0
High grade	37.3	34.8	22.4	30.3
Wealth
Poorest	34.8	25.5	38.4	31.6
Middle	33.0	34.2	33.1	34.5
Richest	32.2	40.3	28.5	33.9
Education
Low	48.9	26.6	56.0	22.8
Medium	36.0	47.1	36.2	59.0
High	15.1	26.3	7.8	18.2
Disability a
No	87.4	90.0	84.2	86.6
Yes	12.6	10.0	15.8	13.4

Note: ELSA = English Longitudinal Study of Ageing; HRS = Health and Retirement Study; SD = Standard deviation.

^aTwo or more limitations with instrumental/activities of daily living.