Since 1970, the health map is essential to the territorialized approach of hospital planning in France. However, three periods can be distinguished, showing its different uses. Initially founded to ensure the equality of the means in the different areas, the sector became a place of coherence between the hospitals, the State and the politicians on the local organization of health care. In the French health system, this evolution expresses the social preference for an equality of means towards equitable procedures for the allowance of resources.