A new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed the devastating long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global health, reversing years of hard-won gains.
The World Health Statistics 2025 shows that global life expectancy dropped by 1.8 years between 2019 and 2021—the steepest decline in recent history—undoing a decade of progress.
The pandemic’s effects extended beyond mortality, severely disrupting health systems and mental well-being.
Increased rates of anxiety and depression reduced global healthy life expectancy by six weeks, effectively cancelling out most of the health gains previously made in tackling noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).
“Behind every data point is a person—a child who didn’t reach their fifth birthday, a mother lost in childbirth, a life cut short by a preventable disease,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
“These are avoidable tragedies. They point to critical gaps in access, protection, and investment—especially for women and girls. Health progress is slowing. Every government has a responsibility to act, with urgency, commitment, and accountability to the people they serve.”
The WHO report also highlights stagnation and slow recovery in achieving the organization’s Triple Billion targets, which aim to provide a billion more people with universal health coverage, better protection from health emergencies, and improved health and well-being.
While the goal of one billion people living healthier lives has been surpassed with 1.4 billion more people benefiting from reductions in tobacco use, improved air quality, and better access to water and sanitation—progress in expanding essential health services and emergency preparedness remains inadequate.
Only 431 million more people gained access to essential health services without financial strain, and 637 million more were better protected from health emergencies.
However, maternal and child health indicators are stagnating. Despite a 40% reduction in maternal deaths and more than a 50% drop in under-5 mortality between 2000 and 2023, recent years have seen minimal improvement.
The report attributes this to underinvestment in primary health care, critical shortages in health personnel, and gaps in key services such as immunization and safe childbirth.
Without urgent intervention, WHO warns, the world could witness an additional 700,000 maternal deaths and 8 million child deaths before 2030.
The report also flags a surge in premature deaths due to NCDs—including heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer—which now represent the majority of deaths among people under 70.
Despite progress in reducing tobacco and alcohol use—alcohol consumption fell from 5.7 to 5.0 litres per capita between 2010 and 2022—the global community is not on track to meet the target of reducing NCD premature mortality by one-third by 2030.
“Strong health systems rely on strong health information. Timely, trusted data drives better decisions and faster results,” said Dr Haidong Wang, WHO Unit Head for Health Data and Analytics.
“WHO is supporting countries through the SCORE strategy to strengthen health information systems, and through the World Health Data Hub, which is helping to standardize, improve, and unlock the value of data across countries and systems.”
The report also underlines uneven progress on infectious diseases. While HIV and tuberculosis rates are declining, and fewer people require treatment for neglected tropical diseases, malaria has been resurging since 2015, and antimicrobial resistance remains a looming challenge.
In 2023, vaccination rates for children had yet to rebound to pre-pandemic levels. Coverage of the diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DTP3) vaccine remains low in many countries.
In addition, health risks like malnutrition, unsafe housing, and air pollution continue to jeopardize vulnerable populations, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
The global health workforce continues to face severe shortages.
WHO projects a shortfall of 11.1 million health workers by 2030, with the African and Eastern Mediterranean regions bearing nearly 70% of this gap.
Further compounding the crisis is the disruption in international aid, threatening progress in countries already struggling with fragile health systems.
WHO stresses that sustained, predictable financing from both domestic and international sources is crucial to safeguard progress and respond to emerging challenges.
“This report shows that the world is failing its health checkup. But countries have shown that rapid progress is possible,” said Dr Samira Asma, WHO Assistant Director-General for Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact.
“Together, we can achieve a world where data is timelier and more accurate, programmes improve continuously, and premature deaths become rare. With speed, scale, and smart investments, every country can deliver measurable gains.”