IPUMS Demographic and Health Surveys: Version 12

The IPUMS-DHS project harmonizes Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data and documentation for low- and middle-income coutnries around the world to facilitate comparative research across time and countries. The DHS are a primary source of information on health and well-being. IPUMS-DHS is designed to facilitate analysis of DHS data across time and space. 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. IPUMS-DHS includes a wide range of health-related topics for women of childbearing age, the women's births and young children, non-elderly men, and household members of all ages. IPUMS-DHS also includes another unit of analysis, woman-months, which simplifies analyzing retrospective calendar data on births, pregnancies, pregnancy terminations, and contraceptive use.