The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program overseen by the US Agency for International AID (USAID) uses nationally representative surveys, biomarker testing, and geographic location to collect data on monitoring and impact evaluation indicators for individual countries and for cross-country comparisons.

Standardized DHS surveys include the Demographic and Health Survey, Service Provision Assessment, HIV/AIDS Indicator Survey, Malaria Indicator Survey, and Key Indicators Survey. The DHS Program also collects biomarkers and geographic data. Data availability varies by year and country. A table that lists all currently available data can be found here.

Abstract

The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) Program is a USAID funded program that supports governments with their demographic and health data surveys and makes the data available on their website. Demographic and health data for 46 African countries https://www.dhsprogram.com/Countries/Country-List.cfm is available from the DHS site. Researchers can register their projects with the Program on the site to obtain access to this data https://www.dhsprogram.com/data/new-user-registration.cfm Reports for each survey round are also available from the site https://www.dhsprogram.com/publications/index.cfm

Analysis unit

Households and individuals

Kind of data

Survey data

Contains data from the DHS data portal. There is also a dataset containing Türkiye - Subnational Demographic and Health Data on HDX.

The DHS Program Application Programming Interface (API) provides software developers access to aggregated indicator data from The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program. The API can be used to create various applications to help analyze, visualize, explore and disseminate data on population, health, HIV, and nutrition from more than 90 countries.

Spatial Data Repository and STATcompilerUSAID-funded The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program: Produced by ICF International This spatial Demographic and Health Surveys Program Data Package is made available from the Spatial Data Repository and STATcompiler under the Open Database License: http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1.0/. Any rights in individual contents of the database are licensed under the Database Contents License: http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/dbcl/1.0/CITATIONData users should cite the Spatial Data Respository as the source of all derived reports, publications, presentations, or other products. To use the recommended citation, simply replace the date of download.Spatial Data Repository, The Demographic and Health Surveys Program. ICF International. Available from spatialdata.dhsprogram.com [Accessed Day Month Year].

Contains data from the DHS data portal. There is also a dataset containing Niger - Subnational Demographic and Health Data on HDX.

The DHS Program Application Programming Interface (API) provides software developers access to aggregated indicator data from The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program. The API can be used to create various applications to help analyze, visualize, explore and disseminate data on population, health, HIV, and nutrition from more than 90 countries.

This survey was conducted in Senegal by le Ministère de l'Économie, des Finances et du Plan Direction de la Prévision et de la Statistique. 6,310 women between the ages of 15 - 49 and 1,436 men between the ages of 20 to XX were interviewed from November 1992 - August 1993. Major topics covered: Anthropometry; GPS/Georeferenced; HIV Knowledge; Maternal Mortality; Men's Survey; Service Availability

Data access requires registration with USAID. USAID now makes this data available directly on their website, which can be accessed here: https://dhsprogram.com/methodology/survey/survey-display-46.cfm - along with additional years of data here: https://dhsprogram.com/data/available-datasets.cfm

We advise you use this location to access the data as they have updated formats, etc. This material remains in the archive for preservation and historical purposes.

Contains data from the DHS data portal. There is also a dataset containing Philippines - National Demographic and Health Data on HDX.

The DHS Program Application Programming Interface (API) provides software developers access to aggregated indicator data from The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program. The API can be used to create various applications to help analyze, visualize, explore and disseminate data on population, health, HIV, and nutrition from more than 90 countries.

Contains data from the DHS data portal. There is also a dataset containing Kingdom of Eswatini - National Demographic and Health Data on HDX.

The DHS Program Application Programming Interface (API) provides software developers access to aggregated indicator data from The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program. The API can be used to create various applications to help analyze, visualize, explore and disseminate data on population, health, HIV, and nutrition from more than 90 countries.

Contains data from the DHS data portal. There is also a dataset containing Türkiye - National Demographic and Health Data on HDX.

The DHS Program Application Programming Interface (API) provides software developers access to aggregated indicator data from The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program. The API can be used to create various applications to help analyze, visualize, explore and disseminate data on population, health, HIV, and nutrition from more than 90 countries.

This survey was conducted in India by the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS). 89,777 ever married women between the ages of 19 - 49 were interviewed from April 1992 - September 1993. Major topics covered:Abortion; Anthropometry; Causes of Death; HIV Knowledge; Maternal Mortality; Micronutrients; Service Availability; Tuberculosis Questions; Vitamin A Questions

Data access requires registration with USAID. USAID now makes this data available directly on their website, which can be accessed here: https://dhsprogram.com/methodology/survey/survey-display-50.cfm - along with additional years of data here: https://dhsprogram.com/data/available-datasets.cfm

We advise you use this location to access the data as they have updated formats, etc. This material remains in the archive for preservation and historical purposes.

Abstract

The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is a large-scale, multi-round survey conducted in a representative sample of households throughout India. Four rounds of the survey have been conducted in 1992-93, 1998-99, 2005-06, and 2015-16. The fifth round of the survey (2019-2020) is currently in the field. All of the surveys are part of the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program. The surveys provide information on population, health, and nutrition at the national and state level. Since 2015-16, the surveys have also provided information at the district level. Some of the major topics included in NFHS-4 (2015-16) are fertility, infant and child mortality, family planning, maternal and reproductive health, child vaccinations, prevalence and treatment of childhood diseases, nutrition, women’s empowerment, domestic violence, marriage, sexual activity, employment, anemia, anthropometry, HIV/AIDS knowledge and testing, tobacco and alcohol use, biomarker tests (anthropometry, anemia, HIV, blood pressure, and blood glucose), and water, sanitation, and hygiene. The primary objective of the NFHS surveys is to provide essential data on health and family welfare, as well as emerging issues in these areas. The information collected through the NFHS surveys is intended to assist policymakers and program managers in setting benchmarks and examining progress over time in India’s health sector. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Government of India, designated the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, as the agency responsible for providing coordination and technical guidance for all of the surveys. IIPS has collaborated with a large number of field agencies for survey implementation. The Demographic and Health Surveys Program has provided technical assistance for all of the surveys.

Documentation

You can access the data through the DHS website. Data files are available in the following five formats:

• Hierarchical CSPro file
• Flat files: ASCII data with syntax, Stata, SPSS, SAS

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All datasets are distributed in archived ZIP files that include the data file and its associated documentation. The DHS Program is authorized to distribute, at no cost, unrestricted survey data files for legitimate academic research. Registration is required to access the data.

Additional information about the surveys is available on the India page on the DHS Program website. This page provides a list of surveys and reports, plus Country Quickstats for India, and it is the gateway to accessing more information about the India surveys and datasets.

Methodology

2015-16 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4): Fieldwork for NFHS-4 was conducted in two phases, from January 2015 to December 2016. The fieldwork was conducted by 14 field agencies, including three Population Research Centers. Laboratory testing for HIV was done by seven laboratories throughout India. NFHS-4 collected information from a nationally representative sample of 601,509 households, 699,686 women age 15-49, and 112,122 men age 15-54. The survey covered all 29 states, 7 Union Territories, and 640 districts in India.

Funding for the survey was provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India; the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); UKAID/DFID; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; UNICEF; the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); and the MacArthur Foundation. Technical Assistance for NFHS-4 was provided by Macro International, Maryland, USA.

2005-06 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3): Fieldwork for NFHS-3 was conducted in two phases, from November 2005 to August 2006. The fieldwork was conducted by 18 field agencies, including six Population Research Centers. Laboratory testing for HIV was done by the SRL Ranbaxy laboratory in Mumbai. NFHS-3 collected information from a nationally representative sample of 109,041 households, 124,385 women age 15-49, and 74,369 men age 15-54. The survey covered all 29 states. Only the Union Territories were not included.

Funding for the survey was provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID); the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; UNICEF; the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); and the Government of India. Technical assistance for NFHS-3 was provided by Macro International, Maryland, USA.

1998-99 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2): Fieldwork for NFHS-2 was conducted in two phases, from November 1998 to December 1999. The fieldwork was conducted by 13 field agencies, including five Population Research Centers. NFHS-2 collected information from a nationally representative sample of 91,196 households and 89,188 ever-married women age 15-49. Male interviews were not included in the survey. The survey cover

Contains data from the DHS data portal. There is also a dataset containing Eswatini - Subnational Demographic and Health Data on HDX.

The DHS Program Application Programming Interface (API) provides software developers access to aggregated indicator data from The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program. The API can be used to create various applications to help analyze, visualize, explore and disseminate data on population, health, HIV, and nutrition from more than 90 countries.

Sources:a National Institute for Population Research and Training, MEASURE Evaluation, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (2012) Bangladesh Maternal Mortality and Health Care Survey 2010. Available: http://www.cpc.unc.edu/measure/publications/tr-12-87. Accessed October 15, 2012.b World Health Organization (ND) WHO Maternal Mortality Country Profiles. Available: www.who.int/gho/maternal_health/en/#M. Accessed 1 March 2015.c Lozano R, Wang H, Foreman KJ, Rajaratnam JK, Naghavi M, Marcus JR, et al. (2011) Progress towards Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 on maternal and child mortality: an updated systematic analysis. Lancet 378(9797): 1139–65. 10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61337-8d UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO, World Bank (2012) Trends in maternal mortality: 1990–2010. Available: http://www.unfpa.org/public/home/publications/pid/10728. Accessed 7 October 2012.e Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Statistics Informatics Division, Ministry of Planning (December 2012) Population and Housing Census 2011, Socio-economic and Demographic Report, National Series–Volume 4. Available at: http://203.112.218.66/WebTestApplication/userfiles/Image/BBS/Socio_Economic.pdf. Accessed 15 February, 2015.f Mozambique National Institute of Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau, MEASURE Evaluation, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012) Mortality in Mozambique: Results from a 2007–2008 Post-Census Mortality Survey. Available: http://www.cpc.unc.edu/measure/publications/tr-11-83. Accessed 6 October 2012.g Ministerio da Saude (MISAU), Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE) e ICF International (ICFI). Moçambique Inquérito Demográfico e de Saúde 2011. Calverton, Maryland, USA: MISAU, INE e ICFI.h Mudenda SS, Kamocha S, Mswia R, Conkling M, Sikanyiti P, et al. (2011) Feasibility of using a World Health Organization-standard methodology for Sample Vital Registration with Verbal Autopsy (SAVVY) to report leading causes of death in Zambia: results of a pilot in four provinces, 2010. Popul Health Metr 9:40. 10.1186/1478-7954-9-40i Central Statistical Office (CSO), Ministry of Health (MOH), Tropical Diseases Research Centre (TDRC), University Teaching Hospital Virology Laboratory, University of Zambia, and ICF International Inc. 2014. Zambia Demographic and Health Survey 2013–14: Preliminary Report. Rockville, Maryland, USA. Available: http://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/PR53/PR53.pdf. Accessed February 26, 2015.j Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014) Saving Mothers, Giving Life: Maternal Mortality.Phase 1 Monitoring and Evaluation Report. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Dept of Health and Human Services. Available at: http://www.savingmothersgivinglife.org/doc/Maternal%20Mortality%20(advance%20copy).pdf. Accessed 26 February 2015.k Central Statistical Office (CSO), Ministry of Health (MOH), Tropical Diseases Research Centre (TDRC), University of Zambia, and Macro International Inc. 2009. Zambia Demographic and Health Survey 2007. Calverton, Maryland, USA: CSO and Macro International Inc.Comparison of Maternal Mortality Estimates: Zambia, Bangladesh, Mozambique.

This dataset for Ghana combines preprocessed data from two data sources to create a rich source of information that can be used to develop a detailed understanding of poverty in the country.

Content

Demographic & Health Surveys Preprocessed Data

The dataset contains preprocessed data from the DHS for Ghana. There are five main data files:

1. Household data
2. Household Member data
3. Births data
4. Cluster information
5. Geographic information (shapefile)

The first three files contain all the features required for a complete calculation of the Multidimensional Poverty Index. The household member and births data both contain reference IDs that can be used to join them to a particular household in the household datafile. The cluster file contains information required to link each household to a particular cluster, which in turn can be associated with geographic location information.

For detailed descriptions of the features available, refer to the DHS Recode Manual.

For details on how the preprocessed data was obtained, refer to Part III of my submission for the Kiva Challenge https://www.kaggle.com/taniaj/kiva-crowdfunding-targeting-poverty-sub-nat .

Financial Inclusion Insights Survey Preprocessed Data

The dataset also contains preprocessed data from the FII Survey for Ghana. It contains features relevant for developing a financial deprivation indicator, such as whether the respondent has a formal bank account, whether they have formal savings and whether they have access to formal borrowing services.

For detailed descriptions of the features available, refer to the documentation.

For details on how the preprocessed data was obtained, refer to Part IV of my submission for the Kiva Challenge https://www.kaggle.com/taniaj/kiva-crowdfunding-adding-a-financial-dimension .

Other data

In addition to the main datafiles, there are a number of "_sjoin" files, which are intermediate steps in my kernel, where a spatial join was run locally and saved to be read back in due partly to sjoin not working on Kaggle servers, partly to save time.

Terms of Use

Please refer to the following pages for the terms of use:

1. DHS Program Terms of Use
2. Intermedia Terms of Use

Acknowledgements

The original data was provided by:

1. The Demographic & Health Surveys Program, USAID
2. The Financial Inclusion Insights Program, Intermedia

Inspiration

This dataset was added for use in the Data Science for Good: Kiva Crowdfunding challenge

This survey was conducted in Namibia by the Ministry of Health and Social Services. 5,421 women between the ages of 15 - 49 were interviewed from July 1992 - November 1992. Major topics covered: Anthropometry; Arm Circumference; Causes of Death; Maternal Mortality

Data access requires registration with USAID. USAID now makes this data available directly on their website, which can be accessed here: https://dhsprogram.com/methodology/survey/survey-display-48.cfm - along with additional years of data here: https://dhsprogram.com/data/available-datasets.cfm

We advise you use this location to access the data as they have updated formats, etc. This material remains in the archive for preservation and historical purposes.

The do-file required to execute the regression models in the study have been provided. The 2021 Malaria Indicator Survey (MIS) dataset underlying the study is publicly available in the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) database: https://dhsprogram.com/Data/

The World Fertility Survey (WFS) was designed by the International Statistical Institute in collaboration with the United Nations (UN) and the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) in the early 1970s. The programme aimed to collect and analyse information to permit countries to “describe and interpret the fertility of their population”. The WFS was implemented with two core questionnaires: one aimed at developing countries in Africa, Asia, and South America with high fertility and low contraceptive use and another devised to be applied in developed countries in Europe and North‐America with low fertility and high contraceptive use. The micro‐data collected in the 42 developing countries and Portugal are archived and accessible through the Demographic Health Survey (https://wfs.dhsprogram.com/). The micro‐data collected in the 20 developed countries are not centrally archived. In 2020, the Generations and Gender Programme received funding from the Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) for the project "International Microdata for Reproductive Studies – promoting and facilitating the use of forgotten and underused fertility and family planning surveys". As part of this project some micro-data collected in developed countries was retraced and archived at DANS.This package contains micro-data of France, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Great Britain.Individual-level data access is provided via www.ggp-i.org

Source: Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)* Respondent present on the day of interview, consented to HIV serostatus testing, and tested during their DHS/AIS interview. Percent tested as reported in Demographic patterns of HIV testing uptake in sub-Saharan Africa: DHS Comparative Reports 30. [42] and DHS Country Reports.** HIV prevalence as available from the HIV/AIDS Survey Indicators Database (accessed at http://hivdata.dhsprogram.com/ on July 17, 2015)Sample Characteristics and Adult HIV Prevalence.

This survey was conducted in Benin by l'Institute National de la Statistique. 5,491 women between the ages of 15 - 49 and 1,535 men between the ages of 20-64 were interviewed from June 1996 - August 1996. Major topics covered: Anthropometry; Early Childhood Education; HIV Behavior; HIV Knowledge; Maternal Mortality; Men's Survey Micronutrients; Service Availability; Social Marketing; Vitamin A Questions

Data access requires registration with USAID. USAID now makes this data available directly on their website, which can be accessed here: https://dhsprogram.com/methodology/survey/survey-display-87.cfm - along with additional years of data here: https://dhsprogram.com/data/available-datasets.cfm

We advise you use this location to access the data as they have updated formats, etc. This material remains in the archive for preservation and historical purposes.

A program that provides technical assistance for surveys that aim to advance global understanding of health and population trends in developing countries. The DHS program collects, analyzes, and disseminates accurate and representative data on population, health, HIV, and nutrition through more than 300 surveys in over 90 countries.