Social inequities in health are systematic differences in health status between different socioeconomic groups that are socially produced (and therefore modifiable) and unfair. Equity in health implies the converse: that ideally, everyone could attain their full health potential and that no one should be disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of their social position or other socially determined circumstance. This paper concentrates on socioeconomic inequities, but the importance of other axes of inequity for children’s health, notably gender, ethnicity, geography, and disability, are acknowledged.

The paper focuses on child and adolescent health, which captures the early years—early childhood development in infancy and the preschool period, childhood and the years of schooling, through to adolescence. The preconception period and pregnancy are important periods that influence subsequent child health. WHO considers “maternal and newborn” as one of the four periods of focus for addressing health across the life-course, the next period being defined as “child and adolescent health.”

Arguing for health equity in childhood is critical. Inequities in childhood are unfair in themselves and lead to health inequities across the life-course. Socioeconomic inequities in child health are seen across the WHO European Region for almost all aspects of child physical and mental health. Differences are striking and emerge from birth, persisting (and sometimes widening) across childhood and into adolescence. Health inequities are particularly unfair in the case of children and adolescents, who have little control over their health and the factors that influence it (as reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). What happens to children in their earliest years is a fundamental measure of what a society values. It determines the development of inequities in later adult life, as early inequities in child health and development strongly influence health and other outcomes (such as education, employment, and relationships) that are important for adult health.