WHO Releases 'State of Inequality' Report on Noncommunicable Diseases and Their Risk Factors
The World Health Organization released 'State of inequality: noncommunicable diseases and their risk factors' on 20 October 2026. Drawing on national data collected over the past decade, it examines four NCDs - cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes - alongside risk factors including tobacco and alcohol use, obesity, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and air pollution. The report finds hypertension and diabetes more common among less-educated groups in low- and middle-income countries, rural populations less likely to be diagnosed and treated than urban ones, and poorer, less-educated women least likely to receive cervical cancer screening.
The WHO was established on 7 April 1948 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland; its Director-General is Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus | NCDs kill about 43 million people a year, roughly three-quarters of all non-pandemic deaths worldwide | SDG target 3.4 aims to cut premature NCD mortality by one-third by 2030