One of the central aims of the HL4EU project is to identify, promote and facilitate access to cross-sectoral practices that foster healthy lifestyles through physical activity. Urban design plays a critical role in shaping the conditions that enable or hinder such lifestyles—by influencing how people move, access services, and engage with their environment.
A new European-wide tool, the Healthy Urban Design Index (HUDI), makes a significant contribution to this effort. Developed by researchers at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and published together with an academic article in The Lancet Planetary Health (June 2025), HUDI offers a granular, open-access evaluation of how well European cities are designed to support population health.
HUDI assesses 917 cities across Europe, including large metropolitan areas, medium-sized urban centres, and small towns. It uses 13 spatial indicators grouped into four domains—urban design, sustainable transport, environmental quality, and green space accessibility—to provide each city with a composite score that reflects its urban health performance. These indicators include walkability, cycling infrastructure, public transport access, housing density, air quality, and proximity to green spaces.
The tool reveals major disparities between regions and city types. While large cities in northern and western Europe tend to perform better in areas such as compact urban design and sustainable mobility, smaller cities often benefit from better air quality and lower exposure to urban heat islands. However, some mid-sized cities manage to strike a balance across all domains.
Pamplona (Spain) ranks as the top city overall, with a HUDI score of 6.8 out of 10, standing out for its compact urban form, investment in walkable and cyclable infrastructure, and relatively low air pollution levels. The city also scores well on green space accessibility, demonstrating how medium-sized cities can lead on multiple fronts. Other top performers include Stockholm, Amsterdam, Lahti, and Edinburgh, each excelling in different combinations of sustainable transport, environmental quality and access to green space.
What sets HUDI apart is its high-resolution spatial detail (250m grid), which enables intra-city comparisons and helps local authorities identify specific neighbourhoods where health-supportive urban planning can be strengthened. Importantly, HUDI is not only a research output—it is a dynamic, open-source tool, with a public platform that invites cities, planners, researchers and civil society organisations to explore the data, contribute improvements, and support evidence-based policymaking.
Urban Design and Planning: A Core Category of HL4EU Platform
The HL4EU platform promotes practical, cross-sectoral initiatives that support healthy lifestyles through design, infrastructure and policy. Urban design and planning is one of the key categories for good practice submissions, and HUDI exemplifies how data-driven tools can inform planning decisions that prioritise physical activity, environmental quality and long-term public health.
As the HL4EU platform continues to grow, we encourage organisations and stakeholders to take inspiration from the HUDI approach and share their own examples of how the built environment can support healthy lifestyles.
Do you know of a tool, initiative or strategy in urban design and planning that supports this goal?
