Health in Cities

More than half of all people live in cities — by 2050, this number is expected to rise to 70 percent. Cities are where key drivers of health play out, making them a hub of opportunity to advance health globally. Initiatives to improve health in cities have been successful, but there remains a huge opportunity for stakeholders across the public, private, and social sectors to do better and achieve improved and more equitable health outcomes in cities.

The McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) estimates that a focus on immediately influenceable interventions at the city level can add approximately 20 billion to 25 billion years of higher-quality life at a global level.

MHI believes four categories of interventions can harness cities’ unique potential to address health needs:

• healthy longevity, including interventions such as effective screening and treatment for cardiometabolic conditions or cancer, as well as better diets and societal participation of older people
• brain health, including mental health task-sharing and increasing access to mental health supports by upskilling clinical and nonclinical workers to provide brief, basic versions of evidence-based psychological treatments
• climate-related health, including developing city-level climate and heat action plans to help counter the effects of climate change
• health worker capacity, including launching training programs to grow the paramedical and paraclinical workforce and the community health workforce