Download the final 'Closing the Gap' publication: Taking Action on Health Equity.
This publication contains summaries of what each of the 21 ´Closing the Gap´ partners are doing to address health inequalities in their countries, as well as the conclusions and recommendations of this 3-year initiative.
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Finland’s emphasis on citizen equality and on accessible and high quality welfare services has a long tradition. Just like Denmark, Norway and Sweden, Finland is referred to as a Nordic welfare state. The value of Gini coefficient is 0.269 (where 0 = perfect equality and 1 = perfect inequality) according to the Human Development Report 2004.
Health inequality issues are well integrated into the health programme, and it has been on the political agenda since the 1980s. The term “health inequalities” is well understood by professionals and academics, however it is not part of the general population's conciousness.
The background information for this entry was collected by the Finnish project partner - Marita Sihto of STAKES. The following persons also contributed either by participating in the roundtable discussion or by providing their comments independently:
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This section provides the key documents on health inequalities published on a national level in Finland in the past decade.
In this section main tools used to implement and monitor national policies in the field of health inequalities are listed.
In this section key actors that are in a position to have an impact on health inequalities policies, such as ministries, state agencies, universities and/or independent institutes are listed.
Please click here to learn about the databases where you can find a collection of good practices aiming at reducing health inequalities collected in Finland.