The UHC Billion target is for one billion more people to benefit from Universal Health Coverage.

Achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is a Sustainable Development Goal, monitored on two dimensions. These are coverage of essential health services (SDG Indicator 3.8.1), and a measure of financial hardship (SDG Indicator 3.8.2). The UHC Billion combines these indicators to estimate the number of additional people covered by health services and not experiencing financial hardship.

Coverage of essential services within the UHC Billion is defined as the average coverage of the 14 SDG 3.8.1 tracer interventions. Small adjustments are made to certain indicators to ensure relevance and enable conversion into population. Financial hardship is measured by the proportion of the population experiencing catastrophic health expenditure - the population that spends more than 10% of household expenditure or income on health.

Data for each service coverage tracer indicator and the measure of financial hardship are from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Indicator Database and WHO Global Health Observatory. These databases contain country-reported data or official estimates that have been reviewed and approved in consensus with Member States.

For the purposes of the UHC Billion, adjustments are made to enable the translation of SDG 3.8.1 into a population number. This includes using an arithmetic average, rather than a geometric average, and transforming some non-coverage tracer indicators. The resulting value of service coverage, expressed as percentage of population covered by health services, is multiplied by the proportion of the population not experiencing financial hardship to create a single measure of UHC. Progress towards the UHC Billion is calculated by multiplying the 2023 projected population by the change in the combined measure since the baseline. Please see the Methods Report for further information.

Please see the Triple Billion Target FAQs for further information.

The accuracy of the UHC Billions calculation is constrained by the underlying SDG from which it is created, including the choice of indicators and data availability. Currently, SDG 3.8.1 service coverage is measured by just 14 tracer indicators, 6 of which are proxies that do not directly measure service coverage. The service coverage measure does not account for the quality or effectiveness of treatment. Additionally, combining service coverage and financial hardship into a single measure relies on the simplifying assumption that the two components are independent. This assumption is necessary as data for SDG 3.8.1 and 3.8.2 are obtained from different sources and cannot be used to determine who benefits from service coverage without financial hardship. The method is therefore approximate, subject to uncertainty, and only intended for use in calculation of the UHC Billion. It does not replace or amend any existing SDG 3.8 indicators.