A long-running study of nearly 28,000 people born in England and Wales has found that coastal residents in midlife carry a 20 percent greater burden of chronic illness — not because the sea harms them, but because the sea holds them. Researchers at UCL have traced the pattern to a quiet, decades-long sorting: those with means and health migrate inland toward opportunity, while those without remain, concentrating poverty and its consequences along the shoreline. The coast, once a source of livelihood, has become in many communities a kind of geographic trap — beautiful, isolated, and increasing
Coastal residents face worse midlife health due to deprivation, not location
Coastal residents experience significantly higher rates of chronic disease burden by midlife, with disadvantaged populations bearing disproportionate health impacts.