Which Polish city is the "healthiest"? Healthy Cities Index 2023

Wiktor Bochenek

24 of November '23

we know the results of the next edition of the "Healthy Cities Index"

Photo: Wiktor Bochenek

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The concept of a "healthy city" is an increasingly popular idea that supports the introduction of more responsible solutions. What does the term public health really mean? How can a city be healthy and what elements go into it? We find out thanks to the next "Healthy Cities Index" report.

what is a healthy city?

The concept of a healthy city is based primarily on creating conditions and infrastructure that are conducive to maintaining the well-being of residents. This translates not only into traditional health services, i.e. hospitals and clinics, but also local demographics, access to public services, the degree of education, environmental, housing and spatial conditions.

The report is available on the Luxmed website.

Second installment of the Healthy Cities Index report

It is on the basis of these elements that the experts created the second installment of the Healthy Cities Index 2023. The document was created in cooperation between Luxmed Group, GAP Foundation, SGH and Healthy Cities.

The interconnectedness of health and economic well-being underscores the need to prioritize public well-being for sustainable urban development, one of the project coordinators, Prof. Jerzy Hausner, pointed out.

This is the second edition of the Index - so it is worth noting the methodology. This year's Index uses the same weights, with the same value, which allows it to maintain its comparative nature with respect to the first edition. However, the scoring has changed. The final values are a weighted average of the sub-index scores in each category. In the previous edition, Warsaw scored 100 points; in the new scoring, such a result is almost impossible, as it would mean that the city has reached an ideal state.

The survey covered 66 cities with county rights. Which of them turned out to be the healthiest? Which were the top performers in each category?

The areas were not changed from the first edition of the index

healthiest in ...?

Again, as in the previous edition, the first place went to Warsaw, with a score of 69.3 points out of a possible 100. The second place went to Bielsko-Biała, and the third to Sopot. Opole, which took second place in the first edition, dropped to eighteenth place. Chorzow, which dropped from third place to twenty-first, suffered a similar decline. It is worth noting the partial ratings.

The ranking consisted of 66 cities

In the Health category, two variables were primarily considered - the number of health policy programs and the average cost of implementing health programs and tasks. This is the highest weighting of all areas. The first place was given, as in the main index, to Warsaw. It was immediately followed by Bielsko-Biala and Poznan.

Health category

Another category, Population and Generations, took into account demographic factors such as median age or migration balance, but also indicators directly related to health. These included an analysis of the effects of civilization diseases, infant deaths or deaths of people aged 65. Rzeszow fared best in this comparison, followed closely by the Subcarpathian capital Zory and Suwalki.

Population and generations category

Rzeszow is also the leader in the category of Municipal and Social Services, which primarily examined the quality of services that are in the sphere of local government operations. These include water and sewage, heating, waste, access to sports and culture, or public safety. Second place went to Leszno, and third to Przemyśl.

Municipal and social services category

The Education category focused on access to education, taking into account access to preschool education or exam results. First place went to Krakow, second to Warsaw, and third to Sopot.

Education category

The Housing category was also important, taking into account the housing stock, the standard of buildings or access to social housing. Sopot took first place, followed closely by Gliwice and Wroclaw.

Housing category

The Index also featured an Environment category, which took into account the water cycle, air pollution, selective rainfall harvesting or the amount of treated wastewater. In this category (as in Housing), first place went to Sopot. Second place was awarded to Olsztyn, and third place to Poznań.

Environment category

Another category was Infrastructure, which compared access to public transportation, road safety and ticket affordability. Krosno won in this category. It was immediately followed by Ostroleka and Chelm.

Infrastructure category

The last category was Space. It focused not only on blue-blue infrastructure, bicycle paths and their quality, but also on safety issues. Chorzow took first place, followed closely by Bielsko-Biala and Swinoujscie.

Space category

just find out who lost you?

The Healthy Cities Index is an important source of information on the direction of development and regression of many aspects of public policies. Minor changes in the scoring method have maintained the comparative nature of the document. It is impossible to be a leader in every category, although each individual area can and should be improved, if only minimally.

Public health and the approach to it is changing dramatically - we understand the impact of well-designed space, better-organized infrastructure or the value of education. The Index, with its partly competitive nature, can be a signpost to "healthy cities," as long as its systematic nature is maintained.

The report is available on the Luxmed website.