Health literacy (HL) is a core concept of health promotion. HL is relevant for healthpolicy even more now by the challenges of the Corona pandemic. Therefore, it isimportant to measure comprehensive HL in general populations. In Europe, thiskind of measurement was started originally in 8 countries by the EuropeanCommission with the European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU), with many followup studies in further counties. Based on HLS-EU study design and instrument, theAction Network Measuring Population and Organizational Health Literacy (M-POHL)of WHO-Europe developed the Health Literacy survey 2019 (HLS19), with17countries of the WHO-European region participating. The symposium willpresent selected results of HLS19 by three presentations: (1) Construction,validation and distribution of the scores and categories of the HLS19-Q12 shortversion for measuring comprehensive general HL (15 min); (2) Results ondeterminants of HL and a social gradient for HL (10 min); (3) Results concerning associations of HL with indicators for healthy lifestyles, for health and for usage ofprofessional health services (20 min). Presentations will be prepared andpresented by members of the international coordination center (ICC) of HLS19 inVienna / Austria and members of the German and the Norwegian national teams ofHLS19. Participants of the symposium will get the opportunity to ask questions anddiscuss results 10 minutes for each presentation. 5 minutes will be dedicated forintroducing the symposium and 5 minutes for concluding it. Recommendations forhealth policy concerning improvement of HL will be highlighted. Participants get anoverview on a new instrument to measure comprehensive general HL by a shortversion and on selected results in how far HL matters for health in a number ofcountries in the WHO- European region. The main learning goal is to demonstratethat measuring HL and its determinants and consequences provides policy makerswith most needed data and results on HL to facilitate informed decisions.