WHO has released updated versions of two key resources as part of the Health Inequality Monitor to strengthen data accessibility and usability for health equity.
The WHO Health Inequality Data Repository (HIDR) , the largest public repository of health inequality data, has been updated with the latest available data from publicly available sources. It now contains over 13 million data points that capture more than 2400 health indicators and 22 dimensions of inequality.
The newly released Version 7 of the Health Equity Assessment Toolkit (HEAT and HEAT Plus) software includes improved functionality for the analysis and reporting of health inequalities. HEAT (Version 7) is preloaded with the 2025 HIDR data update.
Access to high-quality disaggregated health data facilitates inequality monitoring efforts across a range of health topics and population groups. The HIDR now contains 62 datasets with updated data from sources such as WHO, the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) Programme, Eurostat, Global Data Lab, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME), the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Global Database, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNICEF and the World Bank.
The HIDR presents health and health-related data disaggregated by dimensions including age, disability status, economic status, education, employment status, migratory status, place of residence, sex and subnational region.
The HEAT and HEAT Plus software application enables the exploration of inequality data through interactive graphs, maps and tables. Version 7 of the software introduces a "Determinants" component that allows users to generate scatterplots showing associations between health indicators and determinants of health across selected countries. These associations can be explored across six domains of health determinants defined in the WHO Operational Framework for Monitoring Social Determinants of Health Equity : economic security and equality; education; physical environment; social and community context; health behaviours; and health care.
"Providing easy access to the latest global inequality data through the Repository, and maintaining tools like HEAT to promote the use of these data, are important components of our work on health inequality monitoring," said Ahmad Reza Hosseinpoor, Team Lead for Health Inequality Monitoring at WHO. "Together, the Health Inequality Data Repository and HEAT pave the way for users in countries to better understand where inequalities exist and start to determine how they can be sustainably addressed."
Health inequality monitoring provides evidence on who is being left behind and informs health policies, programmes and practices that aim to close existing gaps and achieve health equity. Health equity is a central principle outlined in the WHO General Programme of Work (GPW 14) .
About
The Health Inequality Data Repository and Health Equity Assessment Toolkit are available on the WHO Health Inequality Monitor page: https://www.who.int/data/inequality-monitor
The Health Inequality Data Repository was launched in 2023 and is the largest collection of publicly available disaggregated data about health and determinants of health. It is updated annually. All datasets in the repository are accompanied by comprehensive metadata that provide details about the original data source. Note that some datasets in the Health Inequality Data Repository are from external published sources and do not represent official WHO statistics.
The HEAT and HEAT Plus software application was developed by WHO to support the enhanced interpretation and use of inequality data. HEAT contains built-in data from the HIDR, while HEAT Plus allows users to upload their own datasets. HEAT was launched in 2016, and HEAT Plus in 2017.
