The World Health Organization released the full version of its World Health Statistics 2019 report this week – in conjunction with the 72nd World Health Assembly – along with an online resource of interactive data visualisations organised by Sustainable Development Goal categories.

The report, World Health Statistics 2019: Monitoring health for the SDGs, compiles statistics for WHO’s 194 member states on global incidence of leading diseases, disease risks and life expectancy, and reports on progress towards achieving the health-related 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Despite a six-and-a-half-year improvement in global life expectancy between 2000 and 2016, the WHO report has found that people in high-income countries outlive those in low-income countries by 18.1 years. This disparity persists due to significant differences in access to quality healthcare across the globe.

The full report is accompanied by a data visualisation dashboard, which organises the statistics from the report into SDG categories to help the public better understand how health issues interact with other international goals. The dashboard is interactive and freely available for anyone to access.

The report found that while women outlive men across the board, the gap between the two genders is smaller in low-income countries. According to the report, this is primarily due to the lower access women have to maternal health services in low-income countries, where one in 41 women die in childbirth, as compared to one in 3,300 women in high-income countries.

Maternal health, newborn and child health, and reproductive health are just three of the 22 SDG categories highlighted on the interactive dashboard.

An overview of the report was released in April ahead of World Health Day. This year’s report is the first edition to present data on disease and average life expectancy for men and women separately.

Image Credits: WHO/F. Revilla.