WHO warns global health gains are reversing as 2030 targets slip

The World Health Organization has released its World Health Statistics 2026 report, warning that global progress on health targets is uneven, slowing, and reversing in some areas. The assessment indicates that the world remains off track to achieve any of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, despite meaningful improvements in prevention, treatment, and access to essential services over the past decade.

Significant gains were recorded between 2015 and 2024, with 961 million people gaining access to safely managed drinking water, 1.2 billion to sanitation, 1.6 billion to basic hygiene, and 1.4 billion to clean cooking solutions. The WHO African Region achieved faster-than-global reductions in HIV and tuberculosis, while the South-East Asia Region is on track to meet its 2025 milestone for malaria reduction.

However, persistent challenges continue to undermine these gains. Malaria incidence increased by 8.5 per cent since 2015, moving the world further away from global targets. Anaemia affects 30.7 per cent of women of reproductive age with no improvement over the past decade, and violence against women remains widespread, with intimate partner violence affecting one in four women globally.

Progress towards universal health coverage has slowed sharply, with the global service coverage index rising only slightly from 68 to 71 between 2015 and 2023. One quarter of the global population faced financial hardship from health costs, and 1.6 billion people were living in or pushed into poverty due to out-of-pocket health spending in 2022. Childhood vaccination coverage remains below target, and maternal mortality, while down 40 per cent since 2000, remains nearly three times higher than the 2030 target.

The report highlights severe data gaps that prevent a full assessment of progress. As of late 2025, only 18 per cent of countries reported mortality data to the WHO within one year, and nearly one third have never reported cause-of-death data. Of the estimated 61 million deaths globally in 2023, only about one third were reported with cause-of-death information.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, stated that the data tells a story of both progress and persistent inequality. He emphasised that investing in stronger, more equitable health systems, including resilient health data systems, is essential to target action, close gaps, and ensure accountability.

Dr Yukiko Nakatani, WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Systems, Access and Data, noted that trends reflect too many deaths that could have been avoided. She called for urgent action to strengthen primary health care, invest in prevention, and secure sustainable financing to build resilient health systems.

The COVID-19 pandemic further exposed vulnerabilities, linked to an estimated 22.1 million excess deaths between 2020 and 2023. This figure is more than three times the number of officially reported COVID-19 deaths and has reversed a decade of gains in life expectancy, with recovery remaining incomplete and uneven across regions.

Dr Alain Labrique, Director for the Department of Data, Digital Health, Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, warned that data gaps severely limit the ability to monitor real-time health trends and design effective public health responses. He encouraged country efforts to invest in stronger systems and digitalization to enable better decision-making.

The World Health Statistics 2026 report underscores that while global health efforts are delivering results, progress is fragile and insufficient. Accelerated action, stronger health systems, and improved data are urgently needed to renew progress toward the 2030 health goals.