People’s ability to avoid or cope with the health impacts of air pollution is influenced by their socio-economic status
(i.e. income level and employment status). Lower-income households are generally more vulnerable to the health effects
of air pollution, both because of potentially greater exposure, and because of increased susceptibility to its negative health consequences. This might be because they are in poorer health to start with, have limited access to high quality
health care, are more exposed to other risk factors (like smoking) and have limited ability to invest in protective measures
such as air filtration systems and better housing quality.

Socioeconomically disadvantaged groups may be more exposed to indoor air pollution because they lack access to
cleaner energy sources for heating. In addition, people in lower socio-professional categories may be exposed to higher
levels of pollution in workplaces. Having said that, socio-economic disadvantage does not always correlates with air
pollution exposure in the expected direction, as in some cases wealthier households may prefer to live in more central
and more polluted parts of cities (Cournane et al., 2017; European Environment Agency, 2018).