Yes, indeed, it’s good to be rich in old age. According to a new study, wealthy men and women don’t only live longer, they also get eight to nine more healthy years after 50 than the poorest individuals in the United States and in England.

“It was surprising to find that the inequalities are exactly the same,” said Paola Zaninotto, a professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London and a lead author of the study.

The findings, published on Wednesday in The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, emerged from two primary questions: What role do socioeconomic factors play in how long people live healthy lives? Do older adults in England stay disability-free longer than those in the United States?

To answer these questions, researchers from University College London, Harvard University and institutions in three other countries turned to two existing data sets containing more than 25,000 people over 50. They then analyzed how well various factors including education, social class and wealth predicted how long a person would live free of conditions that might impair them from activities such as getting out of bed or cooking for themselves — the study’s definition of “disability-free” and “healthy.”