About IPUMS DHS

The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) are the main source of information on health in the developing world. IPUMS DHS is designed to facilitate analysis of DHS data across time and space.

IPUMS DHS is modelled, in part, on other Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) projects created at the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation at the University of Minnesota and used by over 100,000 researchers around the world.

IPUMS DHS adds value to the original DHS samples in the following ways: variables are coded consistently across countries and over time; web-based search and discovery tools display variable availability across surveys; documentation is organized on a cross-survey, variable-specific basis; and researchers can merge files and create customized datasets using a web dissemination system, at no cost.

The current version of IPUMS DHS includes data on women respondents, with some household information from linked household files, on the young children and all births of women respondents, on adult non-elderly men, and on members of randomly sampled households. Retrospective reports of contraceptive use and reproductive events in the preceding five years are also available as "woman-months" for some samples.

IPUMS DHS is a collaboration of the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation and ICF through the U.S. Agency for International Development-funded Demographic and Health Surveys Program. IPUMS DHS is funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Countries included in IPUMS DHS, December 2020