Planetary Health Assessment
A composite index of environmental, societal, and human health — country-level scores from PDC 2025 data.
About the assessment
The Planetary Health Assessment provides a composite index measure of Environmental Health, Human Health, and Societal Health. This composite index approach helps in synthesizing complex, multi-dimensional phenomena into a simple, understandable metric for comparison across regions or countries. The results can be used to benchmark and highlight priority areas for action, offering decision makers a clear overview of conditions and evidence to guide investment and policy. The results underscore regional disparities, reveal where vulnerabilities converge, and point to opportunities for strengthening resilience in ways that are both practical and globally consistent.
About this index
Environmental Health measures the overall well-being of Earth's natural systems — including ecosystem quality, biodiversity, soil, air, and water. Scores range from 0 (lowest) to 1 (highest).
Sub-indices
Global snapshot
Methodology
The assessment uses a composite index method, wherein the top-level Health Theme scores are comprised of index and subindex scores calculated from collections of indicator data. The indicators capture country-level data for a specific issue, such as Water Stress, Disease Prevalence, or Disaster Losses, and are organized into indexes and subindexes based on expert input. Data comes from a diversity of sources, cleaned and standardized to equal ranges so no one indicator unfairly dominates any score. The composite index assessment is refined by rearranging or eliminating indicators to avoid redundancy and to improve the power of the index in differentiating countries. This hierarchical structure improves interpretability and strategic planning by allowing decision-makers to target efforts at a level of specificity that makes sense for their unique circumstances and resources.