Work

City PROFILE: “Barcelona: The experience of 40 years of health reports, a health for all policies tool”

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This article profiles the city of Barcelona, focusing on public health and its 40-year history of Health Reporting, and how these reports help to implement evidence-based policies. The first section outlines the city's main characteristics, including its challenges and the description of public health in the city. Then we follow with an overview of the 40 years of health reports in the city, explaining the evolution through the years. Finally, we present five examples of how evidence on health and health impact of policies has been used to inform and drive public policies of housing, climate change, transport and road safety, socioeconomic inequalities, and COVID-19 inequalities. Forty years after its inception, the Barcelona Health Report stands as a milestone in a long tradition of accountability to society regarding the health situation and its determinants in the city. This long-standing initiative reflects a continued political commitment to creating spaces for debate, transparency, and evidence-based policy-making. Also, it shows Barcelona's political commitment to promoting health equity. The lessons learned from this experience can provide valuable insights for other cities, particularly in Southern Europe, looking to enhance their health governance and policy frameworks through evidence-based approaches. • The World Health Organization proposes that a healthy city has to develop a city health profile. • This article focuses on Barcelona (Spain) and its 40-year history of health reporting through city health profiles. • We show an overview of the 40 years of health reports in the city, explaining the evolution through the years. • Five examples of how evidence on health and health impact of policies are presented to drive public policies. • The lessons learned from this experience can provide valuable insights for other cities.

Source: Cities

DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2025.105862