Accumulation of psychological problems in UK cities; A quantile regression approach

The rich get richer and the poor face poverty in cities. Inspired by this economic accumulation, we study if domains of psychological well-being also accumulate across six psychological dimensions in cities. According to accumulation theory, we expect the most pronounced urban-rural disparities in the extremes of a total well-being distribution. We test this using quantile regression on a sample of 39,368 UK residents aged 40 to 70. Using a continuous and objective measure of urbanicity, we examined urban-rural differences through non-linear statistical models. We find evidence for UK urban residents accumulating psychological problems meaning the psychologically worst off face additional disadvantages in cities. We also observe a smaller general shift in total satisfaction meaning everyone is expected to do worse in cities. Lastly, we observe optimal distances between highly urban and rural areas for the central quantiles, 10% to 90%. In contrast, the unhappiest and happiest 10% show a healthy monotonic association with increasing distance from city centers. • Study of urban–rural differences in co-occurring problems across six domains. • Cities show a psychological penalty: more co-occurring problems than rural areas. • Among the psychological worst-off, urban residents fare worse than rural peers. • Among the psychological best-off, urban–rural differences are small. • Thus, psychological inequality is higher in cities.