Health equity is the absence of unfair, avoidable or remediable differences in health among population groups, defined by social, economic, demographic or geographic characteristics. Health inequalities are measurable differences in health across population subgroups. Monitoring health inequalities 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.

The World Health Organization's work in health inequality monitoring aims to:

• Strengthen capacity for health inequality monitoring at country, regional and global levels.
• Generate and disseminate the latest evidence on health inequality and support data disaggregation within WHO and global partners.
• Develop and refine health inequality monitoring tools, resources and best practices.

Monitoring of health inequalities to improve health equity Bulletin of the World Health Organization (2025)

Strengthening and expanding health inequality monitoring for the advancement of health equity: a review of WHO resources and contributions International Journal for Equity in Health (2023)

Promoting health equity: WHO health inequality monitoring at global and national levels Global Health Action (2015)