Getting Started

Nationally representative surveys are designed to collect data on monitoring and impact evaluation indicators important for individual countries and for cross-country comparisons.  Working with survey indicators requires a basic understanding of the types of information being collected and a basic understanding of statistics. This section provides an introductory overview to understanding The DHS Program data and is meant to be a helpful tool for all data users. It can be an aid for those who are just starting out in using data as well as for those whose skills are more advanced.

What Survey Data Are Collected?

Types of Data Collected
The DHS Program collects data using survey questionnaires, biomarker testing, and geographic location.

Survey Types
The types of data collected varies by survey type and individual survey although standardized indicators and methodologies are used to every extent possible.

Completed Surveys
The DHS Program has conducted over 300 surveys in over 90 countries. A list of completed and ongoing surveys is available for browsing and includes key characteristics of each survey.

How Are Survey Data Processed?

Survey data are processed and presented in the final survey report containing a number of tables that provide information on specific indicators in a country. These tables are designed to be comparable between surveys and across countries.

Data processing references include:

  • An overview of the Data Processing Methodology for how survey data is processed, reviewed for accuracy and quality, and finally tabulated and prepared for final release.
  • An introduction to the Data Tabulation Plan which defines model tables to set forth the major findings of a survey in a manner that will be useful to policy makers and program managers.
  • An overview of the Data Editing and Imputation policies that ensure consistent data.
  • A review of issues related to Data Quality and Use.

What Survey Indicators Are Available?

Download Datasets

The DHS Program is authorized to distribute, at no cost, unrestricted survey data files for legitimate academic research. Registration is required for access to data.

Guide to Using Datasets


Debugging Information
ColdFusion Server Developer 2018,0,19,330149
Template /data/Getting-Started.cfm
Time Stamp 03-Jul-24 01:18 AM
Locale English (US)
User Agent Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)
Remote IP 10.0.2.129
Host Name 10.0.2.129


Execution Time

Total Time Avg Time Count Template
78 ms 78 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/master.cfm
78 ms 78 ms 1 top level C:\inetpub\wwwroot\dhs\data\Getting-Started.cfm
63 ms 63 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/set-page-vars.cfm
16 ms 16 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/site-application.cfm
16 ms 16 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/startup/site-application-meat.cfm
16 ms 16 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/dhs/data/Application.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/ADF/core/load_site_adf.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/non-dashboard-include.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/security/security-page.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/startup/build-request-params.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/startup/core-application-meat.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/startup/handle-head-request.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/startup/handle-request-timeout.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/startup/init-customer-scope.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/startup/init-server-scope.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 5 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/utilities/add-unregistered-resource-request.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/utilities/append-to-resource-group.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/utilities/cached-page-render.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/utilities/cp-cfheader.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/utilities/cp-cfmail-request-queue.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/utilities/flush-cache-db-queue.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/utilities/handle-in-list.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/utilities/load-template-properties.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/utilities/verify-stub-data.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/dhs/custom-application.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/dhs/custom-search/inc-custom-application-search-vars.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/cache-status.cfc | DBQueue_Count() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/cache-status.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/cache-status.cfc | GetPageCacheStatus(2352, 5, 2, 0) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/cache-status.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 2 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/cache-status.cfc | GetPageCacheStatus(4742, 5, 2352, 0) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/cache-status.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/custom-module-cache.cfc | getCustomAppPath(5) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/custom-module-cache.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/custom-module-cache.cfc | getCustomModulePath(post-page-render, 5) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/custom-module-cache.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/item-security-cache.cfc | GetEntry(4742) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/item-security-cache.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/rewrite-rules-cache.cfc | getRewriteSettings(5) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/rewrite-rules-cache.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/subsite-cache-manager.cfc | getLatest() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/subsite-cache-manager.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/subsite-cache-manager.cfc | getSecurityPageIDMap([complex value]) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/subsite-cache-manager.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/template-cache.cfc | LoadTemplateProperties(template-Data-Template.cfm, 2352, 5) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/cache/template-cache.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/custom-application-framework/handle-applications.cfc | executeFunction(handleRequestStart) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/custom-application-framework/handle-applications.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/engine/ACF/utilities.cfc | checkFileExists(C:/commonspot-data/customers/commonspot-users/sites/commonspot-site-dhs/mapped/cache/5/p4742-c0-l90-t0-dlame.read, 0, false) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/engine/ACF/utilities.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent('head' request check) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(CGI variable processing) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(Request object updates) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(Request.Params initialized) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(RequestTimeout check) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(Server-level remote requests checked) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(Subsite context updated (ID=5)) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(authoring suspended check) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(basic setup) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(check for server property changes) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(core cleanup) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(core initialization) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(core variables) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(custom-application.cfm) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(customerScope object initialized) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(handleRequestStart) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(init-server-scope loaded) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(lock checks/updates) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(site environment initialization) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(site session check) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(subsite context refreshed) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(wait for lock: CommonSpot_Server_Scope (read)) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | addEvent(wait for lock: CommonSpot_Site1_Core (exclusive)) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc | init() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/debug-timing.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/visitor-context-rule-actions.cfc | onPageVisit(4742, 5) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/commonspot/components/util/visitor-context-rule-actions.cfc
0 ms  STARTUP, PARSING, COMPILING, LOADING, & SHUTDOWN
94 ms  TOTAL EXECUTION TIME
red = over 250 ms average execution time


SQL Queries

SelectedCustomRenderElements (Datasource=commonspot-site-dhs, Time=47ms, Records=2843) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\commonspot\set-page-vars.cfm @ 01:18:52.052
		SELECT dcr.*
		  FROM Data_Custom_Render dcr, CustomElementModules cem
		 WHERE (dcr.PageID IN (?,?,?,?)) 
			AND dcr.VersionState=?
			AND (dcr.ModuleID = cem.ID OR dcr.ModuleID <= 0)
	 ORDER BY dcr.ControlID, dcr.PageID DESC, dcr.VersionID DESC
	
Query Parameter Value(s) -
Parameter #1(CF_SQL_INTEGER) = 1
Parameter #2(CF_SQL_INTEGER) = 2
Parameter #3(CF_SQL_INTEGER) = 4742
Parameter #4(CF_SQL_INTEGER) = 2352
Parameter #5(CF_SQL_INTEGER) = 2


Scope Variables

Application Variables:
activesubsites=1,2,5,6,8,17,18,19,20,21,22,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58
adf=Struct (89)
adfscheduler=Struct (0)
applicationname=site1
assocpubdocs=Struct (4)
blogcache=Struct (4)
cachedimages=Struct (32)
cacheinfocache=Struct (53)
confidentiality=Array (5)
controlinstance_toplevel_cache=Struct (126)
covid_articlecount=10
covid_newsarticlecount=49
covid_pressreleasecount=4
covid_pubcount=3
cs_elementcache=Struct (10)
cs_resourcesmissing=Struct (0)
cs_rewriterulescache=Struct (21)
cs_subsitecachemanager=Struct (28)
customerinfo=Complex type
customerscope=Struct (21)
custommodulecache=Struct (21)
defaultconfidentiality=2
dhspagesyncdata=Struct (1)
itemsecuritycache=Struct (31)
languagenames=Struct (51)
languages=Struct (51)
lastknownchange=Struct (18)
lastupdate=Struct (14)
metadatacache=Struct (4)
pendingstubrequests=Struct (0)
rsscache=Struct (2)
search_archive_next_clean=2024-07-03 12:12:03
serverstatus=Struct (1)
site=Struct (74)
sitescope=Struct (9)
styleids=Struct (248)
stylenames=Struct (248)
subsitecache=Struct (46)
subsitecachebysecuritypageid=Struct (46)
templatecache=Struct (28)
templatedefaultsecuritycache=Struct (60)
templateenforcedsecuritycache=Struct (60)
treecache=Struct (25)
twittercache=Struct (2)
typefactory=Complex type
youtubecache=Struct (3)
CGI Variables:
AUTH_PASSWORD=
AUTH_TYPE=
AUTH_USER=
CERT_COOKIE=
CERT_FLAGS=
CERT_ISSUER=
CERT_KEYSIZE=
CERT_SECRETKEYSIZE=
CERT_SERIALNUMBER=
CERT_SERVER_ISSUER=
CERT_SERVER_SUBJECT=
CERT_SUBJECT=
CF_TEMPLATE_PATH=C:\inetpub\wwwroot\dhs\data\Getting-Started.cfm
CONTENT_LENGTH=0
CONTENT_TYPE=
CONTEXT_PATH=
GATEWAY_INTERFACE=CGI/1.1
HTTPS=off
HTTPS_KEYSIZE=
HTTPS_SECRETKEYSIZE=
HTTPS_SERVER_ISSUER=
HTTPS_SERVER_SUBJECT=
HTTP_ACCEPT=*/*
HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING=gzip, br, zstd, deflate
HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE=
HTTP_CONNECTION=
HTTP_COOKIE=JSESSIONID=9827427008E4189557165D784074D4C8.cfusion; CSRFTOKEN=D93EA3282C4651A040E8DD7F72094193833E2326
HTTP_HOST=preview.dhsprogram.com
HTTP_REFERER=
HTTP_URL=/data/Getting-Started.cfm
HTTP_USER_AGENT=Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)
LOCAL_ADDR=10.0.0.111
PATH_INFO=
PATH_TRANSLATED=C:\inetpub\wwwroot\dhs\data\Getting-Started.cfm
QUERY_STRING=
REMOTE_ADDR=10.0.2.129
REMOTE_HOST=10.0.2.129
REMOTE_USER=
REQUEST_METHOD=GET
SCRIPT_NAME=/data/Getting-Started.cfm
SERVER_NAME=preview.dhsprogram.com
SERVER_PORT=80
SERVER_PORT_SECURE=0
SERVER_PROTOCOL=HTTP/1.1
SERVER_SOFTWARE=Microsoft-IIS/10.0
WEB_SERVER_API=
Cookie Variables:
CSRFTOKEN=D93EA3282C4651A040E8DD7F72094193833E2326
JSESSIONID=9827427008E4189557165D784074D4C8.cfusion
Request Parameters:
anonnoreadelements=
applockname=CS_App_Site1_1
archiveemail=archive@dhsprogram.com
assetsdir=/assets/
author_approve_whereclause=(VersionState = 2)
authormode=0
authorok=1
browser=Struct (13)
browserallincluded=1
cachefilesused=1
cachestatus=Complex type
cfflushcount=0
cgivars=Struct (49)
cloudfrontkeypairid=K3LSHNFSZFMIUC
cloudfronturl=d1vyaiefsqy4pf
constants=Complex type
cors.isCorsRequest=NO
cp=Struct (123)
cs_init_timings=Struct (23)
cs_isdashboardcmd=0
cs_request_start_memory=2593277952
cs_runningdashboardcmdcode=0
csrftoken=D93EA3282C4651A040E8DD7F72094193833E2326
customerinfo=Complex type
customsearch=Struct (11)
dbdsn=measure_db
debugstate=Struct (1)
dhspagesyncdata=Struct (1)
disablehideformenus=0
dsource=dhs_legacy_live
editmode=0
element=Struct (42)
elementrundetail=Struct (0)
elementsrun=0
environment=Struct (5)
finalreportids=5,26,21,10,18,30,39
finalreportna=139,315,445,488,107,138,459,518
formattedtimestamp=2024-07-03 01:18:52
hivbold=1,3,8,9
imgdir=/images/
includerootdir=/
initialsiteid=1
initticks=1719969532782
jswarnmessage=
lockid=0
mainpage=Struct (84)
maxperms=Complex type
modewhereclause=(VersionState = 2)
modewhereclause_page=(VersionState = 2)
noauthorreason=
nondashboardincludedone=1
obcountires=EG,ZM
package=Struct (0)
page=Struct (84)
pageperms=Complex type
pagesync=Struct (4)
params=Struct (1)
params_formfields=
params_urlfields=
readmodewhereclause=(VersionState = 2)
renderelementdata=Struct (0)
renderfordiff=0
renderforprint=0
renderstate=Struct (73)
req_cam_callcount=1
req_inittimestamp=2024-07-03 01:18:52.782
req_sequenceid=55938
req_startticks=1719969532782
rootdir=/
rootpath=
rooturldatasetadmin=https://preview.dhsprogram.com/data/dataset_admin
samesite_value=
serverdatasource=commonspot-sites
sessionlockname=Session_1_9827427008E4189557165D784074D4C8.cfusion
sessionstring=1_9827427008E4189557165D784074D4C8.cfusion
site=Struct (74)
siteid=1
styleids=Struct (248)
stylenames=Struct (248)
subsite=Struct (0)
subsitecache=Struct (46)
subsitecachebysecuritypageid=Struct (46)
subsiteid=5
templaterootdir=/
timestamp={ts '2024-07-03 01:18:52'}
trustcachestatus=1
typefactory=Complex type
udslockname=CS_Customer_commonspot-users
updatingschemas=0
user=Struct (30)
usersdatasource=commonspot-users
wanterrorsrethrown=0
warnmessage=
xmlbrowser=Struct (13)
Server Variables:
ADF=Struct (15)
COMMONSPOT=Struct (44)
EMAILALERTKEY=BSu0cRa8xSWdSrClnnGvpA==
coldfusion=Struct (10)
os=Struct (5)
system=Struct (2)
Session Variables:
_csrf_token=D93EA3282C4651A040E8DD7F72094193833E2326
adf=Struct (0)
authormode=0
contributemode=read
currentpageid=135849
debugmode=0
debugstate=Struct (1)
editmode=0
environment=Struct (5)
hasusertempfiles=0
language=Struct (216)
lastupdate=Struct (2)
lastuserupdate=1719969529704
lockid=0
lockobjectid=0
lockobjecttype=
locktype=
logintime=
ownedobjecttypes=
pendingapprovalpages=
pendingapprovals=
previewmode=0
requestedversioncounter=
requestedversiontimestamp=
sessionid=9827427008E4189557165D784074D4C8.cfusion
sessionstring=1_9827427008E4189557165D784074D4C8.cfusion
urltoken=CFID=2270986&CFTOKEN=ca78c7ee76139c8-9DBA87BB-EBB6-B305-9A5F957DCC97470E&jsessionid=9827427008E4189557165D784074D4C8.cfusion
usagelist=
user=Struct (30)
xmlbrowser=Struct (13)
xmlenvironment=Struct (5)
Debug Rendering Time: 0 ms