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Background: Within the European Union (EU), substantial efforts are being made to achieve economic and social cohesion, and the reduction of health inequalities between EU regions is integral to this process. This paper is the first to examine how self-reported conditions and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) vary spatially between and within countries. Methods: Using 2014 European Social Survey (ESS) data from 20 countries, this paper examines how regional inequalities in self-reported conditions and NCDs vary for men and women in 174 regions (levels 1 and 2 Nomenclature of Statistical Territorial Units, 'NUTS'). We document absolute and relative inequalities across Europe in the prevalence of eight conditions: general health, overweight/obesity, mental health, heart or circulation problems, high blood pressure, back, neck, muscular or joint pain, diabetes and cancer. Results: There is considerable inequality in self-reported conditions and NCDs between the regions of Europe, with rates highest in the regions of continental Europe, some Scandinavian regions and parts of the UK and lowest around regions bordering the Alps, in Ireland and France. However, for mental health and cancer, rates are highest in regions of Eastern European and lowest in some Nordic regions, Ireland and isolated regions in continental Europe. There are also widespread and consistent absolute and relative regional inequalities in all conditions within countries. These are largest in France, Germany and the UK, and smallest in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. There were higher inequalities amongst women. Conclusion: Using newly available harmonized morbidity data from across Europe, this paper shows that there are considerable regional inequalities within and between European countries in the distribution of self-reported conditions and NCDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Replies to comments on a paper which suggests a reconsideration of agricultural origin in Great Britain, Ireland, and southern Scandinavia. Post-processual approach; Domestication; Rapid agricultural uptake; Middle-range theory; Use of archaeological data; Coastal fishing evidence; Neolithic traits.

Comments on Peter Rowley-Conwy's study suggesting a reconsideration of agricultural origin in Great Britain, Ireland, and southern Scandinavia. Revisionist account of the north-west Europe Neolithic; Rowley-Conwy's treatment of cereals, settlement, and domestic architecture; Contrast between Great Britain and Ireland.

Comments on a paper by Peter Rowley-Conwy which suggests a reconsideration of agricultural origin in Great Britain, Ireland, and southern Scandinavia. Reasoned appeal to archaeological common sense in the interpretation of Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in north-western Europe; Claim that the transition was a rapid economic revolution; Indictment of an archaeology in which seductive ideas have come to take precedence over the meticulously developed empirical record.

Comments on a paper by Peter Rowley-Conwy suggesting a reconsideration of agricultural origin in Great Britain, Ireland, and southern Scandinavia. Evidence of the continued use of coastal as well as inland sites for hunting, fishing, and gathering during the first part of the Early Neolithic period; Shift from a marine to a terrestrial diet at the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic; Simultaneous agricultural activity and grazing of domesticated animals during the first centuries of the Neolithic over a large part of northern Europe.

Comments on Peter Rowley-Conwy's study which suggests a reconsideration of agricultural origin in Great Britain, Ireland, and southern Scandinavia. Distinction between economy and ideology, domestic and ritual, and environmental archaeologist and interpretative archaeologist; Dominance of a shifting-settlement model for the Neolithic and the allied supposition that this means wild food; Economic determinism.

Comments on Peter Rowley-Conwy's paper which suggests a reconsideration of agricultural origin in Great Britain, Ireland, and southern Scandinavia. Ideological and subsistence dynamics and the current interpretations of their correlation that have achieved axiomatic status in postprocessual views of the transition in north-western Europe; Theoretical and interpretative postulates and available data on palaeoeconomy, palaeodiet, and cultural continuum in northwestern Europe; Economy and material culture.

Comments on a paper by Peter Rowley-Conwy which suggests a reconsideration of agricultural origin in Great Britain, Ireland, and southern Scandinavia. Post-processual approach; Domestication as one option from among a broad range of relationships between human society and animal or plant species; Hunter-gatherer intensification.

Comments on Peter Rowley-Conwy's call for a reconsideration of agricultural origin in Great Britain, Ireland, and southern Scandinavia. Arguments against Mesolithic intensification; Neolithization of north-western Europe; Post-processual or contextual theoretical viewpoint; Dichotomy between the more conventional archaeologists and academic archaeology.

Comments on a study by Peter Rowley-Conwy which suggests a reconsideration of agricultural origin in Great Britain, Ireland, and southern Scandinavia. Debate between migrationists and diffusionists; Concept of an intensifying Meolithic; Foraging Neolithic concept; Post-processual approach.