Healthy city is a term used inpublic health andurban design to stress the impact of policy onhuman health. It is a municipality that continually improves on a physical and a social level until environmental and pathological conditions are reached establishing an acceptable morbidity rate for the population.^[1] Its modern form derives from aWorld Health Organization (WHO) initiative on Healthy Cities and Villages in 1986, but has a history dating back to the mid 19th century.^[2] The term was developed in conjunction with theEuropean Union, but rapidly became international as a way of establishing healthy public policy at the local level throughhealth promotion.^[3] It emphasises the multi-dimensionality ofhealth as laid out in WHO's constitution and, more recently, theOttawa Charter for Health Promotion.^[4] An alternative term isHealthy Communities, orMunicipios saludables in parts of Latin America.

Many jurisdictions which have healthy community programmes and cities can apply to become a WHO-designated "Healthy City". WHO defines the Healthy City as:^[5]

"one that is continually creating and improving those physical and social environments and expanding those community resources which enablepeople to mutually support each other in performing all the functions of life and in developing to their maximum potential."

Measuring the indices required, establishing standards and determining the impact of each component on health is difficult. In some regions such as Europe, a health impact assessment is a required piece ofpublic policy development.^[6][7]

There are many networks of healthy cities, including in Europe^[8] and internationally, such as theAlliance for Healthy Cities. A key feature is ensuring that thesocial determinants of health are taken into consideration in urban design and urban governance. For example, "urbanization and health" was the theme of the 2010World Health Day.^[9] One tool in developing healthy cities issocial entrepreneurship.^[10]

• 15-minute city
• Active design
• Carfree city
• Co-benefits of climate change mitigation
• Health promotion
  • Alliance for Healthy Cities
• Health impact assessment – Type of public health document
• Health impact of light rail systems
• Most livable cities
• Primary health care
  • Health For All
• Public health
• Sustainable city – City designed with consideration for social, economic, and environmental impact
• Social influences on fitness behavior
• Street reclamation – Changing streets to focus on non-car use
• Urban vitality
• Zero-carbon city

• Kenzer M.Healthy cities: a guide to the literature.Archived 2006-05-29 at theWayback MachineEnvironment and Urbanization, 11(1), April 1999.
• Boonekamp GMM et al.Healthy Cities Evaluation: the co-ordinators perspective.Health Promotion International 14(2): 103, 1999.
• Special Supplement on European Healthy Cities.Health Promotion International, Volume 24, Supplement 1, November 2009.
• J Ashton, P Grey, K Barnard.Healthy cities — WHO's New Public Health initiative.Health Promotion International, 1(3): 319-324, 1986.
• Mah, David; Asensio-Villoria, Leire (2016).Lifestyled, Health and Places. Berlin, Germany: Jovis Verlag.ISBN 978-3-86859-422-5.

• World Health Organization - Healthy Cities
• The Health City

• Environmental social science concepts
• Public health
• World Health Organization
• Environment by city
• Urban design

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• Short description is different from Wikidata