Overview of key data sources: international
The following is a brief overview of available (and almost all web-based) resources for health- and well-being-related data for European and other countries.
| Source | Description | Contents | Coverage | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WHO Regional Office for Europe | Provides ‘data to track and assess alcohol policies and their implementation within and across countries of the European region’ | Data tables include policy developments 2004-05, alcohol consumption restrictions, licensing, drink-driving, treatment of alcohol consumption/dependence, and can be accessed for individual countries or via ‘consolidated regional alcohol profiles’; in addition, there are a dozen ‘consumption and harm’ indictors available. | National only | Website | |
| WHO Regional Office for Europe | Statistical atlas of ‘key health figures for the WHO European Region’ | Uses data taken principally from the European Health For All Database (HFA-DB) (see below), and thus contains a similar type of data. The data are arranged within the following chapters: demography (population, births, abortions), life & death (life expectancy, all-cause and cause-specific mortality), diseases, lifestyle & environment (smoking, alcohol, food-borne disease, home & work accidents), healthcare | National only | Paper report, but .pdf version available to download. | |
| UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) | Demographic Database of the Population Activities Unit (PAU-DB) of the UNECE. | Collection of basic demographic data and indicators on the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including all the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Covers 53 countries and 5 demographic domains: population (e.g. age dependency ratio, old & young age dependency ratio, age breakdown) , fertility (e.g. abortions, birth rate, average age of first-time mothers), mortality (e.g. all deaths, cause-specific deaths), life expectancy, infant mortality), marriage & divorce, and population forecasts (including dependency ratios) | National only | On-line database | |
| United Nations | Annual (long-running) U.N. publication of basic population & demographic related statistics | Set of tables grouped within these headings: population, fertility, foetal mortality, infant & maternal mortality, general mortality, “nuptiality”, divorces | National only | On-line database. Note that all U.N. statistical databases are listed on the UN statistical databases list web page | |
| European Community (EC)-funded collaborative project | EU-funded study to develop a 'coherent set of European Community Health Indicators' | First set of 'reasonably comparable' data is available from the website, grouped under the following headings: Demographic and socio-economic factors; Health status; Determinants of health; Health interventions (health services). Note that the ECHI project has also created an International Compendium of Health Indicators (ICHI) website to allow the 'direct comparison of indicators and indicator definitions' used by a variety of European organisations and projects. | National | Combination of tables, graphs and .pdf documents. | |
| European Health For All Database (HFA-DB) | WHO Regional Office for Europe | National-level database with large array of health & health-related data | Contains data on about 600 health indicators, grouped within the following domains: demographic & socio-economic indicators (e.g. population, births, deaths, unemployment); mortality (life expectancy, disability-adjusted life expectancy (DALE), infant mortality, neonatal mortality, cause-specific death rates); morbidity, disability & hospital discharges (incidence, prevalence & hospital discharges for various conditions); lifestyles (smoking, alcohol, road traffic accidents, diet); environment (food-borne diseases, occupational disease, work-related accidents); healthcare resources; healthcare utilisation & expenditure; maternal & child health (e.g. abortions, live births, immunisation) | National only: over 50 Member States of WHO European Region, including UK but not Scotland | On-line database, plus downloadable off-line version |
| Scotland and European Health for All (HfA) Database | ScotPHO and WHO Regional Office for Europe | As above | As above | Scotland plus over 50 Member States of WHO European Region, including UK | On-line database plus a downloadable off-line version. Also briefing notes interpreting the key findings for Scotland. |
| European Health Interview & Health Examination Surveys Database | EC-funded collaboration | Website-based inventory of nationally and internationally administered health surveys in EU Member States and elsewhere | Covers 2 types of health surveys: Health Interview Surveys (HIS) and Health Examination Surveys (HES).
Allows comparison of questions, methodologies etc. | National | Website |
| WHO Regional Office for Europe | Mortality data supplement to the European Health For All Database (HFA-DB) | Data on 67 causes of death by age and sex | National only | On-line system, a version of which can be downloaded | |
| Health EU Portal | European Commission | The 'official public health portal of the European Union' which includes a 'wide range of information and data on health-related issues' | Data are mainly supplied by the ECHI (European Community Health Indicators) project - see elsewhere in this table for further information. | National | Website |
| | Website which is part of the International Association for the Study of Obesity | Includes links to various obesity-related publications; plus includes IOTF childhood obesity data web page taken from Obesity in Europe report | National | Website | |
| EC-funded collaborative project | Project around creation of a regional European health database.
NB Data on website can be viewed but not used/ published/ quoted | Data available on website are arranged around these themes: healthcare professionals, healthcare structures (e.g. beds, bed days), demographic & socio-economic data (population, births, deaths, unemployment), mortality data, morbidity (HIV/AIDS, breast cancer and TB incidence only), biological factors and health habits (BMI and smoking only), living & working conditions (road traffic accidents and work-related accidents only), data on 'prevention' (vaccination) | Regional (but only within participating countries) | Final report available, and data can be accessed via the website | |
| Links to European Health Indicator Databases | WHO | Links to European national web sites which incorporate online databases (many similar to WHO's Health for All database (see above), but which may also contain regional data) | Set of links | n/a | Web page |
| WHO | Links to many Ministries of Health and Central Statistics offices | Set of links | n/a | Web page | |
| United Nations | Page of U.N. website with links to many countries’ national statistics pages | Set of links | n/a | Web page | |
| OECD | Comparative analysis of data for 30 OECD countries | 2006 data arranged in domains including: health status (morbidity, mortality), healthcare resources, healthcare utilisation, expenditure on health, healthcare financing, social protection, pharmaceutical market, non-medical determinants of health (lifestyles & behaviour: food, alcohol, tobacco, BMI) , demographic references, economic references. Full list of variables OECD Health Data 2006 - List of variables | National | CD-ROM costing around £150 for a single user. | |
| Oral Health Country/Area Profile Programme (CAPP) | WHO Headquarters Geneva - Oral Health Programme and WHO Collaborating Centre, Malmo University, Sweden | Presents global information on dental diseases and oral health services | Databases include: oral health profiles by country and WHO region; significant caries index; systemic and oral health; oral diseases and related factors; tobacco and oral diseases | National only | Website |
| United Nations | ‘Portal’ to various U.N. web sites and resources, including some of those described within this table. | Links to databases, publications and web sites | n/a | Website | |
| Eurostat | Regional statistics from Eurostat, now available free of charge on-line | Large volume of regional data covering topics such as demographics (population, population change (births, deaths, births by age of mother, infant mortality)), economic statistics (regional GDP, employment, household income), education, environment, migration, health (mortality, healthcare resources), transport and labour market (economically active, employment/unemployment) | Regions; NUTS 2003 areas | On-line database | |
| Eurostat | Annual Eurostat regional statistical ‘handbook’ | Examines regional differences in 12 ‘domains’ including: population, agriculture, GDP, household income, labour market, business, health (mortality, healthcare resources), tourism | Regions; NUTS 2003 areas | Paper publication, including CD-ROM with data used to create maps/graphs; .pdf version of book also available. Details available here. | |
| Scotland and European Health for All (HfA) Database (see above under 'E') | |||||
| WHO Regional Office for Europe | Database containing ‘data on smoking prevalence and various aspects of tobacco control policies in WHO European Member States. It provides standardised information to track and assess the tobacco-related situation within and across countries in the region’ | Country profiles, or country comparison tables can be created containing indicators such as smoking prevalence, smoking attributable deaths & years lost, taxation, licensing, policy and more. | National | Website | |
| Trends in Europe & N. America - Statistical Yearbook of the Economic Commission for Europe | UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) | One of (and most relevant) UNECE data resources. Includes relevant chapter/domain headings such as population, economy, health etc., plus country profiles | Domains covered include population (including population growth, dependency ratio, birth rate, death rate), families & households (e.g. lone parent households, average age of first-time mothers, abortion rates), education (attainment, expenditure), employment, economy, health (e.g. life expectancy, healthy life expectancy (HALE), infant & child mortality, cause-specific deaths, average length of acute stay, smoking prevalence, alcohol consumption), housing (e.g. tenure), transport (e.g. motor fuel prices, road traffic accidents, car & lorry numbers), energy, environment (e.g. air pollution), communication, participation (e.g. voter turnout), crime & safety (e.g. crime rates, prisoner numbers) | National only | On-line set of MS Excel tables |
| EC DG-REGIO (Directorate General for Regional Policy of European Commission), Eurostat | Selection of Eurostat indicators for selected towns & cities, so-called “kernels”, and larger urban zones. Note that National Statistics (ONS) has a useful ONS Urban Audit web links related to the project | Nine Domains: demography (age, gender & nationality, household), social aspects (housing, health and crime), economic aspects (employment and income), civic involvement (elections and local administration), training & education (education levels), environment (climate, air quality, water and waste), travel & transport (travel to work, accidents), ‘information society’ (ICT use & ICT sector), culture & recreation (cultural activities and tourism sector) | European cities and associated geographies (258 cities in all) | Subsets of the data can be accessed directly within both city profiles, and an on-line system, from the main Urban Audit All the data is also available from the Eurostat Urban Audit database. | |
| WHO | Various mortality related data sets from WHO Member States | Includes tables of numbers of deaths by age, sex and cause, but also allows access to the raw data files for all available countries (but not in a user-friendly format) | | Website with access to tables and raw data | |
| WHO | WHO Statistical Information System | ‘The guide to health and health-related epidemiological and statistical information available from the World Health Organisation’. Includes core indicators from world health report, selected indicators by country and topic, burden of disease activities and more. | n/a | Website | |
| WHO | Set of ‘core’ (i.e. basic) health indicators for all countries | Indicators grouped under titles of mortality (adult, child & infant mortality only), population (e.g. total population, growth rate, dependency ratio), life expectancy, national health accounts (e.g. % expenditure on health, GDP), and MDGs (Millennium Development Goals indicators) (only includes under 5 mortality rate) | National only | Online database | |
| WHO | Various WHOSIS indicators which are selected on a single country-by-country basis | Covers general ‘health indicators’ (subset of some of the WHOSIS Core Health indicators), MDGs, and cause of death statistics. The latter provides access to the WHO Mortality Database web page above, with which one can either access - again, on a country by country basis – tables of numbers of deaths by age, sex and cause, or download the raw data files for all available countries (but not in a user-friendly format) | ‘National‘ only (but with Scotland shown separately for some mortality statistics) | Web page | |
| United Nations | Population related data, with projections to the year 2050 | Population by age & sex, growth rate, birth & death rates, life expectancy, migration, dependency ration, infant mortality | National only | On-line database |
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