Socioeconomic factors have a strong impact on health globally but their influence varies depending on institutional and social contexts (WHO, 2023). People living in rural areas, those in low-income communities, and those with limited education tend to face greater challenges to accessing healthcare services. The graph above depicts how socioeconomic factors such as income inequality, literacy rate, occupation and healthcare index impact global healthcare inequality. Countries like South Africa and Brazil with high income inequality exacerbate inequitable access to healthcare because wealth is concentrated among a few people. Literacy rate also plays a crucial role in impacting global healthcare inequality in a way that it hinders public health education. Furthermore, developed countries such as Germany and Australia have a low-income inequality and high levels of literacy rate have a strong health care system. In Germany, majority of the households have mandatory insurance to help ensure that even the low-income residents receive healthcare. Australia’s healthcare system is similar to Germany’s as it ensures that every resident receives proper services through the Medicare system where people are funded through taxation. 

The healthcare workforce represents the backbone of any healthcare system. This visualization reveals the profound inequality in human resources for health across country income groups. High-income countries have 18 times more physicians per capita than low-income countries (3.6 vs. 0.2 per 1,000 population) and 15 times more nurses (10.8 vs. 0.7 per 1,000). This workforce disparity directly impacts healthcare access, quality, and health system resilience during crises. The situation is further exacerbated by healthcare worker migration from low to high-income countries, often called "brain drain."

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) represents the goal of ensuring all people have access to needed health services without suffering financial hardship. This visualization compares access to six essential healthcare services between high and low-income countries. The stark disparities are evident across all service categories, with the largest gaps in hospital access (96% vs. 38%) and HIV treatment (92% vs. 48%). These coverage gaps translate directly into preventable suffering and death. The radar shape visualization effectively illustrates how comprehensive healthcare coverage tends to be in high-income countries versus the more fragmented coverage in low-income settings.

This bar graph depicts the healthcare inequalities in different continents in the world, by looking at access to healthcare facilities in rural and urban areas. This data measures access based on how close healthcare facilities are within a 5km distance. Across all continents , urban areas consistently have higher healthcare access rates compared to rural areas. Europe has the highest urban access rate at 92% while Africa has the lowest at 64%. Rural access is lower among all continents with Africa having the lowest at 26%. The disparity is most prominent in Africa with people in rural areas facing the worst difficulties in accessing health care facilities.