Overview
The World health statistics report is the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual compilation of health and health-related indicators for its 194 Member States, which has been published since 2005. The Division of Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact produces this report, in collaboration with WHO technical departments and Regional Offices. The 2022 edition reviews more than 50 health-related indicators from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and WHO’s Triple Billion targets, with a focus on the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
This report summarizes the impact of COVID-19 on SDG indicators using currently available data. Chapter 1 presents the most recent data on COVID-19 cases, deaths, excess mortality, vaccinations and the pandemic’s impact on essential health services.
It also describes key patterns and disparities in the distribution of COVID-19 cases, deaths and vaccine access. Chapter 2 summarizes global and regional trends in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, together with the global burden of diseases and injuries. Chapter 3 presents the latest available data for a wide range of behavioural, environmental and metabolic risk factors that constitute important determinants of health. Chapter 4 focuses on universal health coverage (UHC) and describes recent trends in service coverage and financial protection, as well as key aspects of health systems. The information presented in World health statistics 2022 is based on data available from global monitoring as of late April 2022. These data have been compiled primarily from databases managed by WHO or United Nations partner entities and supplemented with data and analyses from peer-reviewed publications.
Key information
- COVID-19 has disproportionately affected vulnerable populations, including those who are economically disadvantaged, the elderly and people with existing underlying health conditions, and the unvaccinated.
- Higherrisk populations need better protection against severe illness, more transmissible variants of coronavirus and death due to COVID-19 infection. Yet, they remain critically underserved by vaccination programmes in many countries.
- People continue to live longer and live more years in good health. Global life expectancy at birth increased from 66.8 years in 2000 to 73.3 years in 2019, and healthy life expectancy (HALE) increased from 58.3 years to 63.7 years.
- The global share of deaths attributable to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) increased from almost 61% in 2000 to almost 74% in 2019.
- The total number of children affected by stunting was 27% lower in 2020 than in 2000 and the prevalence rate of stunting also declined. Meanwhile, obesity has increased globally across all ages since 2000.
- The average level of alcohol consumption worldwide declined slightly between 2010 and 2019, with men continuing to consume about three times more alcohol than women.
- Tobacco use declined more steeply: about 22% of the global population aged 15 years and older were using tobacco in 2020, down from almost 33% in 2000.
- The number of adults aged 30–79 years with raised blood pressure (hypertension) is estimated to have almost doubled to 1.28 billion between 1990 and 2019, mainly due to population growth and ageing.
- Safely managed drinking water services were accessible to about three quarters (74%) of the global population in 2020.
- The latest global monitoring reports on universal health coverage (UHC) and financial protection in health, published by WHO and the World Bank, identified mixed trends prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Service coverage improved steadily from an index of 45 in 2000 to 67 in 2019, while the proportion of the population with out-of-pocket health spending exceeding 10% of their household budget grew from 9.4% in 2000 to 13.2% in 2017.
- On average, countries reported that about 56% of 28 tracer essential services had been disrupted in the third quarter of 2020 and 41% were still being disrupted in early 2021.
- Global spending on health more than doubled in real terms between 2000 and 2019, reaching 9.8% of the global gross domestic product.
- Approximately 80% of that spending occurred in HICs, with the bulk of it (about 70%) coming from government budgets. In LICs, out-of-pocket spending was the main source of health expenditure (44%), followed by external aid (29%).
Related readings
- World Health Statistics 2021: Monitoring health for the SDGs
- World Health Statistics 2020: Monitoring health for the SDGs
- World Health Statistics 2019: Monitoring health for the SDGs
- World Health Statistics 2018: Monitoring health for the SDGs
- World health statistics 2017: Monitoring health for the SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals – WHO
