Status note: World health statistics 2026

Source: WHO, World health statistics 2026: monitoring health for the SDGs (data as of March 2026). Note date: 24 September 2026.

Status

With fewer than five years to 2030, health-related SDG progress is uneven and too slow. Two decades of gains in maternal and child mortality, HIV, tuberculosis, tobacco and alcohol show that coordinated action works, but several core indicators have slowed, stalled or reversed. The burden sits mainly in low- and middle-income countries and in fragile and conflict-affected settings. Some areas cannot be assessed because the data are missing.

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Moving, but not fast enough

New HIV infections fell 40% from 2010 to 2024 (1.3 million; incidence 0.16 per 1,000). That is short of 370,000 or fewer new infections by 2025 and a 90% cut by 2030. The African Region cut incidence 70% but still holds 65% of people living with HIV (26.3 million of 40.8 million). Tuberculosis incidence fell 12% from 2015 to 131 per 100,000 in 2024 (10.7 million people), against an 80% End TB reduction by 2030. People needing neglected-tropical-disease interventions fell 36% from 2010, to 1.410 billion. Tobacco and alcohol have declined since 2010 and are projected only narrowly to miss global targets. From 2015 to 2024, hundreds of millions to more than a billion people gained safer water, sanitation, hygiene or clean cooking; rural access still lags. Since 2000, the maternal mortality ratio is down 40% and under-5 mortality 51%, and premature mortality from the four main noncommunicable diseases is down more than 20%. Those long-run declines have slowed sharply in the SDG era.

Off track

Malaria incidence is up 8.5% since 2015 (282 million cases in 2024). No WHO region is on track for a 90% cut by 2030 except the European Region, malaria-free since 2015. South-East Asia is on track for the 2025 milestone. Hepatitis B prevalence in children under 5 was 0.6% in 2024, far from 0.1% by 2030; 240 million people were living with hepatitis B and 47 million with hepatitis C. Anaemia in women of reproductive age rose slightly to 30.7% in 2023. In 2024, child stunting was 23.2% (150.2 million), wasting 6.6% and overweight 5.5%, all short of 2030 targets. In 2023, 24.7% of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15+ had experienced intimate partner violence.

The UHC service coverage index rose only from 68 to 71 between 2015 and 2023. About a quarter of people face financial hardship from out-of-pocket spending; 1.6 billion were in or pushed into poverty by health costs as of 2022. Childhood vaccines remain below 90%, especially the second measles dose. The 2023 maternal mortality ratio is still nearly three times the target. No WHO region is on track for the 2030 premature NCD target. Household and ambient air pollution caused 6.6 million deaths in 2021. In 2023, 45.1% of E. coli bloodstream infections were resistant to third-generation cephalosporins and 35.1% of S. aureus was methicillin-resistant.

COVID-19, financing and measurement

An estimated 22.1 million excess deaths occurred in 2020–2023, about three times the 7.0 million officially reported (peak 10.4 million in 2021; 3.3 million in 2023). The pandemic erased nearly a decade of life-expectancy and healthy-life-expectancy gains. Recovery since 2021 is partial and uneven: female life expectancy was back to pre-pandemic levels by 2023, but most measures remain slightly below 2019. The Region of the Americas was hit hardest.

Official development assistance for health in 2025 was estimated 30–40% below 2023. Of about 61 million deaths in 2023, only 21 million were reported to WHO with a cause and 12 million had meaningful ICD coding. As of end-2025, 18% of countries report mortality data within a year; 32% have never submitted cause-of-death data. About one third of countries meet WHO high-quality standards.

For the remaining SDG years

Protect financing where services are already fragile (HIV, TB, malaria, vaccines, essential medicines). Treat UHC financial protection and measles second-dose coverage as stalled. Prioritise death registration, medical certification, ICD coding and reporting within one year. Do not read global averages as recovery: malaria, maternal mortality, NCDs, anaemia and air pollution are the clearest misses.

Country tables are in the WHO Global Health Observatory. This note summarises the report; it is not a WHO product.