Does Sustainable Development Contribute To Equal Opportunities In Health Capital? Evidence From Rural Areas Of The Eu-27

The aim of this article is to assess patterns of health convergence and ruralurban health inequalities across the EU-27 in the context of Sustainable Development Goal 3. Using harmonised data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) for the years 2010-2024, the analysis focuses on the working-age population (16-64 years) living in rural areas. Subjective assessments of poor or very poor health (SPH-BV) were used as a proxy indicator of health capital deficits. To examine convergence dynamics, the classical σ and β convergence measures were applied both to the absolute level of the health burden in rural areas and to the relative health gap between rural and urban areas (RHG). The results indicate an asymmetric pattern of convergence. Both σ and β convergence were confirmed with respect to the absolute burden of poor health in rural areas, indicating that Member States with initially poorer health outcomes experienced relatively faster improvement over time. However, no systematic convergence was observed in relation to the rural-urban health gap. The dispersion of RHG values increased over the study period, suggesting growing heterogeneity in health inequalities between rural and urban populations across the EU-27. This implies that improvements in overall health outcomes in rural areas do not necessarily translate into a reduction in territorial health inequalities.