Data Stories

The health information system (HIS) and data governance database brings together selected indicators from WHO/Euro’s Digital Health Survey (data collection: 2022, 53 Member States responded), AI Survey (data collection: 2024-2025, 50 Member States responded) and health information system assessment reports (available for 15 Member States, assessments performed between 2022 and 2025). Its purpose is to create a comprehensive overview of the advancements and bottlenecks related to HIS and data governance in the WHO European Region. As such, it forms a catalogue of expertise and needs that can be used as a tool for identifying frontrunners and best practices and for gaining insights into barriers and impeding factors across the Region.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming how health systems are designed, delivered, and governed across the WHO European Region. As AI continues to evolve, it is increasingly shaping the way countries plan health services, manage data, and make strategic decisions. In recognition of this shift, the 2024–2025 Survey on Artificial Intelligence for Health Care provides the first region-wide assessment of where Member States stand in terms of policies, regulations, strategies, data governance, adoption, and workforce preparedness for AI in health.

Every year, avoidable environmental risks account for at least 1.4 million deaths in the WHO European Region. These include air pollution, inadequate water and sanitation services, hazardous chemicals, poor waste disposal and climate change. More than 350 resources on environment and health have now been gathered through the European Environment and Health Process to aid the strengthening of national efforts to address the leading environmental determinants of ill health.

The landscape of data and digital health varies across 53 countries in the WHO European Region. A new WHO report and dataset detail how the Member States are reshaping their health-care systems through the integration of digital health, including telehealth, mobile health, Big Data, and other interventions.

Did you know that average life expectancy in the WHO European Region is higher than in any other WHO Region? Or that estimated maternal mortality has halved since the year 2000, and child mortality in the Region has decreased 64% since 2000!

By the midpoint of the Health 2020 implementation period countries have already transformed national health policies in the European Region, with increasing numbers of Member States adopting and implementing its principles and approaches. An updated analysis of the qualitative indicators for monitoring the implementation of Health 2020 policy targets is available.

WHO’s health policy for Europe, Health 2020, aims to improve health and well-being, reduce health inequities and ensure universal health coverage. This visualization gives an overview of how Member States are doing, ranked against the policy’s targets and indicators.

The WHO Emergency Program (WHE) in the European Region is using the SHIELDS (Synergistic Health In Emergencies Ladder Development Tools) as a practical platform to present the monitoring and evaluations and to steer, enhance, monitor and upscale those capacities of member states.

WHO Europe’s Health for All family of databases are the Region’s gold-standard source of health statistics for monitoring and assessment tools in key health policy areas. Discover the wealth of information in the “Health for All explorer”.