Some facts

Every year 100 thousands of people in cities die prematurely due to interlinked urban health problems. Air pollution, crimes, accidents, severe mental illness, infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, inappropriate food are some of the major causes of those premature deaths. It is difficult to single out those causes of access deaths due to individual urban health issues, because they are overlapping and interlinked.

According to a study published in The Lancet Planetary Health, approximately 230,000 deaths annually are attributable to short-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in urban environments alone, accounting for about 22.74% of global deaths from this cause.

In England, 40,000 premature deaths annually, between 2018 and 2022 were reported due to severe mental illnesses of people living in cities.

The 2019 global burden of disease study concluded that obesity and overweight contribute to approximately 4 million premature deaths each year. That accounts for approximately 8% of all global deaths. The number of deaths linked to obesity has been steadily increasing, particularly in urban areas.

The absolutennumber of slum dwellers has increased. As of 2022, approximately 1.12 billion people lived in slums or informal settlements worldwide, representing 24.8% of the global urban population.