The role of cities in public health

Has urban health become a singular public health success? In October, 2016, at the opening of the UN Habitat III conference on housing and sustainable urban development, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that cities were central to “global prosperity, peace and human rights,” and needed to be made “inclusive, safe, resilient, healthy and sustainable”. 10 years later, novel research in this issue of The Lancet Public Health shows that cities are now at the centre of public health both because of their agile governance structures and because of their susceptibility to health-harming urban environments.