WHO releases global mega-map on age-friendly environments

The environments in which people live, including their homes, neighbourhoods, transport services and opportunities to participate in community life, play a critical role in healthy ageing. Evidence on how to create age-friendly environments is spread across public health, social care, housing, transport, urban planning and community development, making it difficult for policy-makers and practitioners to see what has been studied and where gaps remain.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a new interactive mega-map on age-friendly environments bringing together evidence from 1542 systematic reviews and three evidence and gap maps published between 2002 and 2025. The mega-map summarizes evidence across the eight WHO domains of age-friendly cities and communities, including housing, transportation, outdoor spaces and buildings, community support and health services, communication and information, social participation, respect and social inclusion, and civic participation and employment. It also covers age-friendly city and community programmes as a whole.

What does the evidence show?

The findings show that the evidence base is large but uneven. Most reviews focus on community support and health services, especially for outcomes linked to older people’s physical and mental capacities. Communication and information and social participation also have substantial bodies of synthesized evidence. In contrast, there is much less evidence on transportation, civic participation and employment, and respect and social inclusion, despite their importance in shaping older people’s everyday lives, including their ability to move around, access services, take part in community life, stay connected and continue contributing as they age.

Only two systematic reviews examined age-friendly city and community programmes as a whole. Evidence is also limited on broader policy tools such as regulation, governance and financing and on interventions in rural areas and low- and middle-income countries. Equity considerations and economic outcomes such as cost-effectiveness, service use or service quality are rarely addressed.

The assessment also identified methodological limitations in many of the included systematic reviews, often due to incomplete reporting, highlighting the need for more rigorous and transparent evidence synthesis.

Turning evidence into action

The mega-map allows policy-makers, practitioners, researchers and funders to understand where evidence is available and identify where further research, evaluation or investment is needed. It does not show which interventions work best but is a starting point to find relevant evidence and decide where deeper review, local data or evaluation may be needed.

WHO will use the mega-map to inform decision-making, guide future evidence synthesis, and develop tailored products for policy-makers, funders, researchers and age-friendly practitioners, helping to strengthen the link between evidence and action during the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030).