Data repositories

Many organizations share publicly available data. Below you will find a list of data repositories that contain downloadable datasets related to agriculture, food systems, nutrition, and health, as well as tips for downloading data and assessing data quality. At the bottom of the page, you will find SCANR how-to guides for using key data sources.

Data repositories

CPC Data Portal: A repository of publicly-available data collected by the Carolina Population Center.
Global Agriculture Research Data Innovation Acceleration Network (GODAN): A repository of findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) data and publications from the CGIAR. The GARDIAN ecosystem includes repositories of publications and datasets, as well as a data management toolkit for researchers who want to explore, collaborate, and find help.
Global Dietary Database (GDD): An effort to produce estimates of global dietary intake. Publicly available data includes draft estimates of intake for a set of dietary factor from GDD 2015.
Global Health Data Exchange (GDHx): A catalog of surveys, censuses, vital statistics, and other health related data curated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). GHDx includes metadata and links to many datasets of potential interest to ANH researchers. The site also includes downloadable datasets created by IHME.
- IHME Datasets
- Global Burden of Disease Study
FAOSTAT: A repository of food and agriculture data for over 245 countries and territories created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
- Food Balance Sheets: FAO's Food Balance Sheets provide a comprehensive view of each country's food supply by year. Check out SCANR's How-To Guide to Food Balance Sheets for more information.
Food Composition Tables: Food composition tables (FCT) provide data on the nutritional composition of food.
- Food Composition Explained: This website includes key information about FCTs, and a list of links to food composition databases by country
- INFOODS: The FAO International Network of Food Data Systems is a database of food-related data, including FCTs from multiple countries. INFOODS also provides standards and guidelines for FCTs.
Global Food Matters Database: This open-access database provides dietary reference data from low- and middle-income countries, including food composition, recipes, and portion conversions. The resources is free but you must contact the research team for access.
Global Individual Food consumption data Tool (FAO/WHO GIFT): A database of national and subnational food consumption surveys harmonized across time, seasons, and geographical locations.
Harvard Dataverse: A free data repository where researchers from any discipline can access and share data. Organizations can organize their datasets in their own repositories through Dataverse. Repositories of interest to ANH researchers may include:
Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX): An open platform for sharing and accessing humanitarian data.
International Household Survey Network (IHSN) Survey Catalog: A searchable list of surveys and censuses conducted in low- and middle-income countries.
- IHSN Gender Data Navigator: An inventory of survey and census questionnaires with items related to gender from low- and middle-income countries, with links to datasets that are publicly available.
International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook Databases: A database of global economic projections created during the biannual World Economic Outlook (WEO) exercise.
Open SDG Data Hub: A hub of data used to monitor the indicators related to the Sustainable Development Goals.
UK Data Archive: A collection of social, economic, and population data from the United Kingdom.
UNICEF Data: A hub for data created by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) about the wellbeing of children and adolescents worldwide.
- UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS): A survey on indicators of children’s and women’s health and wellbeing in over 100 countries.
USAID Development Data Library: A hub of data created by projects funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
- Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS): A set of nationally representative surveys about population, health, HIV, nutrition, and more in over 90 countries.
  - STATcompiler: The DHS Program’s tool to can be used make custom tables of and download data from the DHS indicators.
  - AReNA DHS-GIS Database: The Advancing Research on Nutrition and Agriculture (AReNA) project constructed this multi-level, multi-countries dataset that combines nutrition and nutrition-relevant information at the individual and household levels from the DHS with a wide variety of geo-referenced data on agricultural production, agroecology, climate, demography, and infrastructure.
  - Evans School Policy Analysis & Research Group (EPAR) Agricultural Development Data Curation: EPAR has constructed more than 150 indicators from the LSMS data. On this website, they are information about how they cleaned the data and constructed indicators, replicable code, and visualizations.
  - IPUMS-DHS: IPUMS provides a version of the DHS data where variables are coded consistently across countries and years and data documentation is organized to facilitate analysis. IPUMS also shares datasets compiled from other population surveys and censuses.
- Feed the Future Data: Feed the Future (FTF) is a global hunger and food insecurity initiative led by the US government. FTF data from program monitoring, impact evaluation, and research is available on Agrilinks and through the USAID Development Data Library.
World Bank Data: The World Bank has a variety of programs, initiatives, and tools through which it shares publicly available data related to global development.
- Global Consumption Database: A repository of data on household consumption patterns in developing countries.
- Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS): A World Bank initiative that supports countries in conducting multi-topic household surveys. LSMS datasets of interest to ANH researchers may include:
  - LSMS – Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA): A set of nationally representative panel surveys in eight countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with a strong focus on agriculture.
  - LSMS+: A set of surveys on individual-level asset ownership and employment in low-income countries.
  - COVID-19 phone surveys: A set of high frequency phone surveys related to socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 collected in six African countries.
- World Bank DataBank: A data analysis and visualization tool that allows users to generate tables, charts, and maps and download time series data on a variety of topics related to global development.
- World Bank Data Catalog: A catalog of data collected by the World Bank.
- World Bank Open Data: A database of indicators related to global development searchable by country and indicator.
- World Development Indicators: A collection of time series indicators related to development that are comparable between countries.
- World Bank Microdata Library: A collection of datasets published by the World Bank and other international, national, and regional organizations that provide information from surveys, censuses, and administrative systems.
WHO World Health Data Platform: A repository of datasets, databases, and data tools created by the World Health Organization (WHO).
WorldClim: A database of high spatial resolution global weather and climate data

SCANR Data How-To Guides

A SCANR How-To Guide to Food Balance Sheets: This guide provides background information about FAO's Food Balance Sheets, resources for using this dataset, and examples of related research.