Healthy, prosperous lives for all: the European Health Equity Status Report. Executive summary (2019)

The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals have provided a framework within which to strengthen actions to improve health and well-being for all and ensure no one is left behind. Despite overall improvements in health and well-being in the WHO European Region, inequities within countries persist.

This report identifies five essential conditions needed to create and sustain a healthy life for all: good quality and accessible health services; income security and social protection; decent living conditions; social and human capital and decent work and employment conditions. Policy actions are needed to address all five conditions. The Health Equity Status Report also considers the drivers of health equity, namely the factors fundamental to creating more equitable societies: policy coherence, accountability, social participation and empowerment. The report provides evidence of the indicators driving health inequities in each of the 53 Member States of the Region as well as the solutions to reducing these inequities.