World health statistics 2025 : Monitoring health for the SDGs,Sustainable Development Goals

The health-related SDGs are a subset of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (2015–2030) that specifically focus on improving global health outcomes.
They are tracked under SDG 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”, but also include health-related indicators from other SDGs (e.g., clean water, nutrition, gender equality).

Key health-related SDG indicators covered in the report include:

• Mortality-related indicators
  • Maternal mortality ratio (SDG 3.1.1)
  • Under-five and neonatal mortality (SDG 3.2.1, 3.2.2)
  • Premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases (SDG 3.4.1)
  • Mortality due to road injuries, suicide, homicide, poisoning (SDG 3.6.1, 3.4.2, 16.1.1, 3.9.3)
  • Mortality from air pollution and unsafe WASH (SDG 3.9.1, 3.9.2)
• Infectious diseases
  • HIV incidence (SDG 3.3.1)
  • Tuberculosis incidence (SDG 3.3.2)
  • Malaria incidence (SDG 3.3.3)
  • Hepatitis B prevalence (SDG 3.3.4)
  • Neglected tropical diseases (SDG 3.3.5)
  • Antimicrobial resistance (SDG 3.d.2)
• Risk factors
  • Child malnutrition (SDG 2.2.1, 2.2.2)
  • Anaemia in women (SDG 2.2.3)
  • Tobacco use (SDG 3.a.1)
  • Alcohol consumption (SDG 3.5.2)
  • Access to clean water, sanitation, hygiene (SDG 6.1.1, 6.2.1)
  • Clean cooking fuels (SDG 7.1.2)
  • Adolescent birth rate (SDG 3.7.2)
  • Violence against women (SDG 5.2.1, 5.2.2)
• Health systems and universal health coverage (UHC)
  • UHC service coverage index (SDG 3.8.1)
  • Financial protection from health spending (SDG 3.8.2)
  • Health workforce density (SDG 3.c)
  • International Health Regulations capacity (SDG 3.d.1)

Summary of the File’s Content

The World health statistics 2025 report is the WHO’s annual compilation of health data, tracking progress toward the SDGs and other global health targets.

Key structure and chapters:

1. Foreword & Key Messages
   • Highlights setbacks from COVID-19, which reduced global healthy life expectancy by 1.8 years in 2020–2021.
   • Warns that current progress is insufficient to meet most health-related SDG targets by 2030.
2. Chapter 1: Change and inequality in healthy longevity
   • Analyzes trends in Healthy Life Expectancy (HALE) before and during the pandemic.
   • Decomposes contributions by causes (communicable diseases, NCDs, injuries) and age groups.
   • Examines inequalities in HALE by sex and income group.
3. Chapter 2: Health-related Sustainable Development Goals
   • Provides latest data on SDG health indicators: maternal and child mortality, NCDs, injuries, infectious diseases, risk factors, UHC, and health systems.
   • Reports that only alcohol consumption is on track to meet its 2030 target globally; all other areas are off-track or progressing too slowly.
4. Chapter 3: Progress in achieving the Triple Billion targets
   • Updates WHO’s Triple Billion targets under GPW13 (2018–2025):
     • 1 billion more people living healthier lives → on track (exceeded)
     • 1 billion more benefiting from UHC → off track (only 500 million projected)
     • 1 billion better protected from health emergencies → off track (only 697 million projected)
   • Introduces GPW14 (2025–2028) with recalibrated targets.
5. Chapter 4: Inequality in immunization
   • Focuses on inequities in childhood vaccination coverage by economic status, education, and location.
   • Shows that while inequalities have reduced over time, barriers remain in urban poor, remote, conflict, and gender-unequal settings.
6. Annexes
   • Annex 1: Progress assessment of SDG indicators by WHO region.
   • Annex 2: Summary of methodology and data sources.