Demographic and Health Surveys

DEMOGRAPHIC AND HEALTH SURVEYS (DHS) - STATcompiler

OVERVIEW

The Demographic Health and Survey (DHS) Program offers a powerful tool called STATcompiler, which allows users to compare data across countries and track trends over time for hundreds of population, health, and nutrition indicators. With access to over 200 surveys, users can create customized tables, graphs, charts, and maps to visualize and analyze complex data. STATcompiler is designed to be user-friendly, with tutorials available for guidance, and provides detailed information on the comparability of results across different surveys. This tool enhances the ability of researchers, policymakers, and development professionals to conduct in-depth analysis and make data-driven decisions.

*The description above is a paraphrased version of the description on DHS website.

Available Data File Formats

Excel, PDF, & PNG

Accessibility

This is an open data source for public use

How to retrieve data by example;

Scenario

Assume you want to analyze the population with access to electricity in Ghana and Nigeria from 1993 to 2022, focusing on how the proportion of people with electricity has changed over time in both countries.

Step-by-step

1. Visit DHS via: https://dhsprogram.com/data/

Demographic and health survey homepage

2. Move the mouse pointer to the right, and place it on “DATA” in red to display the dropdown menu. Afterwards, click on “VISUALIZATIONS” in yellow. 

DHS Data Page

3. Scroll down and click on STATcompiler marked in red.

stat compiler selection page

4.  Afterwards, this is how the interface would appear.

Stat compiler interface

5. Click on “CHOOSE COUNTRY” in red to display the list of countries and select Ghana and Nigeria. Afterwards, click on the “NEXT” button to display the list of indicators.

country selection page

6.  This is how the interface would appear with the list of indicators.

indicator selection page

7.  Click on “Indicators By Tags” in red, and select the “SDGs” in yellow.

tag indicator selection page

8.  From the “SDGs” list, scroll down and select “population with electricity”. Afterwards, click on the “NEXT” button.

indicator selection page

8.  After clicking on “NEXT”, this is how the window would appear. To visualize the data on a chart, click on the icons marked in red.

demographic health information table format

9. This is how the data would be visualized on a chart. To download the data in PDF or PNG, click on “Export” marked in red.

demographic health information chart format

10. This is how the chart and data would appear in PNG and Excel respectively.

chart data png format
chart data excel format

Be sure to consult with the source website on how to correctly cite your data. For this scenario, the citation in APA would look something like this;  

DHS. (2015). The DHS Program STATcompiler: Population with electricity. Funded by USAID. http://www.statcompiler.com