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Source file

WHO Health Data Pipeline

How we process Global Health Observatory data covering life expectancy, disease prevalence, immunization, and health spending.

Methodology brief

What this file explains

This source file shows how WHO Health Data Pipeline data moves from public release to published WorldStats pages: collection, validation, transformation, coverage limits, and known caveats.

  1. 01 Source
  2. 02 Ingest
  3. 03 Validate
  4. 04 Publish
01

Overview

The WHO Global Health Observatory (GHO) provides health statistics for 194 WHO member states. WorldStats uses GHO data for health-specific indicators including life expectancy, immunization rates, disease prevalence, and health expenditure.

02

Data Ingestion

Data is fetched via the GHO OData API using indicator codes. Like the World Bank pipeline, we request all available years and countries, storing the most recent data point per country. Health indicators are mapped to our standardized indicator system and combined with World Bank data on country profile pages.

03

Standardization

WHO and World Bank sometimes report overlapping indicators (e.g., life expectancy). In these cases, we use the source specified in our indicator definitions — typically WHO for health-specific metrics and World Bank for economic and demographic data. Units are normalized to consistent formats across all sources.

04

Known Limitations

WHO data relies on national reporting systems which vary in quality and timeliness. Some countries report health data with significant delays. Disease prevalence data may be modeled rather than directly measured for countries with limited surveillance systems.