For example, in the United States, Burtless (2009) reports that changes in the population’s age structure, living arrangements and ethnic mix contributed only a small share of the rise in inequality between 1979 and 2004: only around 15% of the overall rise in inequality was explained by demographic change with the rise in single-adult households (rather than the ageing population) being the more important contributor. In the United Kingdom, Jenkins (1995) too finds household structures had little influence on the growth in household inequality in the 1980s. Across countries, differences in family structure also do little to explain cross-country differences in poverty rates or inequality (Jantti, 1997, Pasqua, 2008, Harkness, 2010).