Health Data Resources: International

This guide provides a starting point for researchers using health-related numeric data. It includes information on Harvard electronic and print resources and other web-based resources.

World Health Organization (WHO)
The World Health Organization website publishes health data relating to burden of disease statistics, health personnel, mortality, population and much more. This site also provides excel files of the statistical annex to the World Health Report.

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
PAHO is the regional office for the America’s for the World Health Organization. It includes a link to health topics.

World Bank
The World Bank produces many different publications relating to health and health care. A few of publications include:

• Health, Nutrition and Population
• World Development Indicators
• World Bank Data Catalog

Demographic and Health Surveys
The DHS Program has collected, analyzed, and disseminated accurate and representative data on population, health, HIV, and nutrition through more than 300 surveys in over 90 countries. The STATcompiler feature allows both visualization and download of data in spreadsheet and mapping formats. An integrated version of DHS data for 38 countries is available online at idhsdata.org.

Global Health Data Exchange (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation)
A catalog of the world's health and demographic data.

Incidence and Prevalence Database (Harvard E-resource)
Provides epidemiological and market research data related to healthcare products and services. Covers over 4,500 diagnoses and procedures, providing data on epidemiology (incidence, prevalence, morbidity, and mortality), census results, cost analysis, and concomitant diseases.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (Harvard E-resource)
The OECD publishes several health resources including annual and periodical titles that are country and/or subject specific, factbooks that are subject specific and working papers that all hold data.  The Health Statistics resource provides data on health status, health care resources and utilization, expenditure and financing in the health care industry, as well as data on the pharmaceutical industry and non-medical determinants of health.

United Nations: Statistics Division
This United Nations (UN) website provides basic health data including life expectancy, infant mortality rates and child mortality rates for over 100 countries worldwide.

United Nations: UNdata
UNdata, from the United Nations Statistics Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, provides access to major UN statistical databases and those of several international organizations, through a single entry point. Topics include agriculture, crime, education, employment, energy, environment, health, HIV/AIDS, human development, industry, information and communication technology, national accounts, population, refugees, tourism, and trade.

United Nations: Human Development Report
This website provides the full-text of these reports from 1990-present. These thematic reports focus on issues ranging from health to education to globalization to human rights. The site also provides a link to the Human Development Data portal.

United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)
The main UNICEF website publishes health-related data in the form of country tables. You may also search by indicator.

USAid
USAid is an independent federal government agency that collects and publishes data related to global health, economics, agriculture and trade. Global health topics include child survival, HIV/AIDS, Infectious diseases, nutrition and maternal health, and population. The information on this site is mainly text, with some health data available.