The Global Health Observatory
Explore a world of health data
The GHO portal provides a simple query interface to the World Health Organization's data and statistics content, using OData (Open Data Protocol).
You can find below a set with the most comprehensive examples.
*More information about the Odata protocol can be found here .
Table of contents
- Example 1 - Retrieving the list of available dimensions
- Example 2 - Retrieving a list of available values for a specific dimension
- Example 3 - Retrieving the indicators list
- Example 4 - Retrieving indicator data
- Example 5 - Filtering data
- Example 6 - Filtering indicator data by time dimension
- Example 7 - Using null filter
- Example 8 - Retrieving regions list
- Example 9 - Using OData in Power BI
Example 1 - Retrieving the list of available dimensions
Simply specifying the /api/DIMENSION URL will provide you with the list of available dimension codes. The default result is returned in the Observatory's XML schema. Dont forget to include the trailing slash (/) character.
Example 2 - Retrieving a list of available values for a specific dimension
By appending a dimension code and the DimensionValues parameter to the OData URL you can retrieve the list of values associated with that specific dimension. For example, to retrieve the list of the COUNTRY dimension values, use the following link:
https://ghoapi.azureedge.net/api/DIMENSION/COUNTRY/DimensionValues
Example 3 - Retrieving the indicators list
Simply specifying the /api/Indicator URL will provide you with the list of indicators:
https://ghoapi.azureedge.net/api/Indicator
To select only the indicators which contain a specific text, query the data using the following example. In this example, all indicators containing 'Household' were queried:
https://ghoapi.azureedge.net/api/Indicator?$filter=contains(IndicatorName,'Household')
To select only the indicators that have a specific title, query the data using the following example. In this example, the indicator 'Ambient air pollution attributable deaths' was queried:
https://ghoapi.azureedge.net/api/Indicator?$filter=IndicatorName eq 'Ambient air pollution attributable deaths'
Example 4 - Retrieving indicator data
Specify an indicator to download by specifying the indicator code. This will return all associated data for that specific indicator. Building on the previous example, take the code WHOSIS_000001, "Life expectancy at birth" and retrieve the data for this indicator using the following URL:
Example 5 - Filtering data
You can filter the data returned by the web service by identifying specific dimensions and dimension codes that you wish to include or exclude. Use the URL parameter filter with a list of fully qualified dimension codes separated by operator
'and'. Continuing to build on the query from the previous example, if you wish to see the life expectancy at birth data for male sex only, the query is:
https://ghoapi.azureedge.net/api/WHOSIS_000001?$filter=Dim1 eq 'MLE'
Example 6 - Filtering indicator data by time dimension
The indicator data can be related to one year or, in some cases, to a time period that can span over multiple consecutive years.
To make sure that the service returns all the data related to one year. you can filter using the 'TimeDimensionBegin' and 'TimeDimensionEnd' fields.
Continuing to build on the query from the previous example, if you wish to see the life expectancy at birth data for male sex only, for the year 2011 the query is:
Example 7 - Using null filter
You can also filter the data returned by the web service by identifying whether an indicator displays facts that have or not dissagregation dimensions. Building on the Example 3 above, take the codeWHOSIS_000001, "Life expectancy at birth" and retrieve the data for this indicator that is dis-aggregated or not
https://ghoapi.azureedge.net/api/WHOSIS_000001?$filter=Dim1 ne null
Or
https://ghoapi.azureedge.net/api/WHOSIS_000001?$filter=Dim1 eq null
Example 8 - Retrieving regions list
Example 9 - Using OData in Power BI
In Power BI Desktop, you can connect to an OData feed and use the underlying data just like any other data source in Power BI Desktop.
To connect to an OData feed, select Get Data > OData Feed from the Home ribbon in Power BI Desktop.
In the OData Feed window that appears, type or paste the following URL into the box, and select OK:
https://ghoapi.azureedge.net/api
Power BI Desktop connects to the OData feed, and displays the available tables and other data elements in the Navigator window. When you select an element, the right pane of the Navigator window displays a preview of the data. You can select as many tables as you want to import. The Navigator window shows a preview of the currently selected table.
Additional information
If you would like to have more information regarding the API, please send an email to [email protected]