Global evidence on inequities in rural health protection 11
rural population is over twice that of the urban population: 24 per cent rural compared to 11 per cent urban are excluded from access to health care due to health worker shortages.
3.3. The extent of inequitable funding for health protection in rural and urban areas
Deficits in health-care funding determine nearly all dimensions of access to health care, for instance waiting periods, quality of care, acceptance or rejection of patients,
availability of infrastructure and health workers and much more. While such deficits exist widely, they are particularly observed in rural areas.
Lack of financial resources leaves 63 per cent of the world’s rural population
without access to health care. Underfunding of global health financing results in an access
deficit of 48 per cent of global population − nearly half the people in the world. This deficit
is unequally distributed across rural and urban populations: while in urban areas it concerns 33 per cent of the population, it is nearly twice this amount in rural areas: 63 per cent figure
7.
Figure 7. Rural and urban population without access to health care due to a lack of financial resources, 2015 percentage of total world population
Source: ILO estimates, 2015.
The rural population in Africa suffers most from the financial deficit. While the
percentage of the population not covered due to the financial resource gap is higher in rural than in urban areas except in Europe and North America, the highest gaps are in Africa,
where 87 per cent of the rural population are excluded from access to health care due to
10 20
30 40
50 60
70
Global deficit in population coverage
Rural deficit in population coverage
Urban deficit in population coverage
48 63
33
12 Global evidence on inequities in rural health protection
underfunding, compared to 70 per cent of the urban population. In Asia and the Pacific, 66 per cent of the rural population are not covered due to lack of financial resources, compared
to 47 per cent of the urban population figure 8.
Figure 8. Estimated health coverage gap due to financial deficits in ruralurban areas, selected regions, 2015 percentages
Source: ILO estimates, 2015.
Significant inequities in ruralurban financial resource gaps are also found in other regions. Large differences are found in
Asia, where the difference amounts to nearly 19 percentage points; and Latin America and the Caribbean, where the difference exceeds 15 percentage
points.
3.4. The health-related impoverishment of the rural vulnerable
