Do differences in the administrative structure of populations confound comparisons of geographic health inequalities?

Table 1 Number of administrative regions, mean, minimum and maximum region population size and Gini coefficient for each country

Country	Number of regions	Mean Region Population	Minimum Population Region	Maximum Population Region	Gini Coefficient	σ _u(j)(model 1)
Austria	9	388511	116581 Burgenland	630930 Lower Austria	0.30	0.18
Bulgaria	9	441315	260422 Mikhaylovgrad	544456 Plovdiv	0.10	0.05
Czech Rep.	8	590147	309375 Jihoèeský	894204 Jihomoravský	0.19	0.11
Denmark	15	154584	19057 Bornholm	262859 Århus	0.25	0.14
Finland	12	190464	10549 Ahvenanmaa	549665 Uusimaa	0.39	0.12
France	22	1171828	106513 Corsica	4796173 Île de France	0.37	0.11
Germany	16	2255913	286632 Bremen	7519917 North Rhine-Westphalia	0.44	0.18
Greece	13	354070	79930 Ionian Islands	1475350 Attica	0.46	0.13
Hungary	20	232590	96365 Nόgrád	821739 Budapest	0.29	0.09
Italy	20	1275911	50272 Valle d'Aosta	3803059 Lombardy	0.43	0.09
Netherlands	12	579653	105133 Flevoland	1429211 Zuid-Holland	0.40	0.05
Norway	18	106327	34522 Finnmark	373730 Oslo og Akershus	0.32	0.12
Poland	49	363065	109241 Chelm	1855334 Katowice	0.31	0.09
Romania	41	264735	107245 Covasna	1006544 Bucharest	0.24	0.09
Russian Fed.	79	850337	80665 Chukotka	3686473 Moscow (city)	0.39	0.10
Spain	18	988100	57000 Ceutay Melilla	3088000 Andalusia	0.47	0.12
Sweden	24	160028	24045 Gotland	709982 Stockholm	0.34	0.09
Switzerland	26	117639	6046 Appenzell-Inner Rhoden	499548 Zürich	0.51	0.08
UK	56	462425	48617 Isle of Wight	2970235 Greater London	0.42	0.13
Ukraine	26	878529	399913 Chernivtsi	2293997 Donetsk	0.25	0.08

Summary of the 20 countries detailing the number of administrative regions, the mean, minimum and maximum region population size and the Gini coefficient describing inequality in region size. Population values refer to males aged 0-64 between the mid-points of 1990 and 1991. Fitted values describing the inter-regional variation at country-level (σ _u(j)) derived from the simple random relationship model 1 are given.

ISSN: 1471-2288