🌍 WHO GHO Health Indicators Scraper

🚀 Export the World Health Organization Global Health Observatory dataset in seconds. Browse 3,000+ health indicators or pull country, year, sex, and age-stratified facts for any indicator code. No API key, no manual SQL.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-05-21 · 📊 Up to 13 fields per record · 🏥 3,058 indicators · 🌐 194 WHO member states · 🩺 50+ years of history

The WHO GHO Health Indicators Scraper exports the WHO Global Health Observatory, the reference dataset behind WHO's flagship reports on mortality, immunisation, non-communicable diseases, air pollution, mental health, maternal and child health, tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, and dozens more programmatic areas. Each fact record returns the indicator code, country, parent region, year, sex, age group, raw and numeric values, confidence-interval bounds, and methodological comments. Catalog records return the indicator code, name, and language only.

The catalog covers 3,058 indicators across 194 WHO member states and territories, with deep historical depth going back decades. Two run modes are supported: catalog mode lists every indicator code and name, indicator mode pulls every country-year-stratification fact for one indicator code so you can build dashboards, time series, and cross-country comparisons.

🎯 Target Audience	💡 Primary Use Cases
Epidemiologists, public-health researchers, global-health NGOs, health-policy analysts, data journalists, BI teams, ML researchers	Disease-burden modelling, health-policy analysis, comparative country studies, mortality trend tracking, SDG monitoring, ML training datasets

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📋 What the WHO GHO Scraper does

Two run modes plus precise filters:

• 📚 Catalog mode. Returns every indicator (code + name) in the GHO, so you can discover what data exists before pulling it.
• 📊 Indicator mode. Returns every country-year-sex-age fact for a single indicator code, with confidence-interval bounds when published.
• 🌎 Country filter. Restrict to one or more ISO 3-letter country codes from the full WHO membership.
• 📅 Year range. Constrain to a yearFrom/yearTo window (e.g. last decade only).
• 🧮 Stratifications preserved. Sex (SEX_MLE, SEX_FMLE, SEX_BTSX), age groups (AGEGROUP_*), and parent regions all come through intact.

Each record includes the indicator code and name, the spatial dimension (country, region, world), the ISO-3 country code, the WHO parent region, the year, the sex and age stratification, the raw value (with confidence interval text), the numeric value, the low and high CI bounds, methodological comments, and the language of the record.

💡 Why it matters: the WHO GHO is the canonical reference for global health statistics, but the underlying data service is uneven across indicators and stratifications. Pulling indicator data manually means writing custom code for each topic. This Actor returns clean rows for any indicator in one call.

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🎬 Full Demo

🚧 Coming soon: a 3-minute walkthrough showing how to go from sign-up to a downloaded dataset.

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⚙️ Input

Input	Type	Default	Behavior
maxItems	integer	10	Records to return. Free plan caps at 10, paid plan at 1,000,000.
mode	string	"catalog"	catalog for the indicator dictionary, indicator for country-year facts.
indicatorCode	string	"MDG_0000000001"	Required when mode = "indicator". Example codes: MDG_0000000001 (child mortality), WHOSIS_000001 (life expectancy), AIR_10 (air-pollution DALYs).
countryCode	array	[]	One or more ISO-3 country codes (194 enumerated). Empty = all countries.
yearFrom	integer	null	Earliest year (inclusive).
yearTo	integer	null	Latest year (inclusive).

Example: catalog of all 3,058 indicators.

{
    "maxItems": 5,
    "mode": "catalog"
}

Example: child mortality for USA and GBR.

{
    "maxItems": 5,
    "mode": "indicator",
    "indicatorCode": "MDG_0000000001",
    "countryCode": ["USA", "GBR"]
}

⚠️ Good to Know: start with catalog mode to find the indicator code you need, then switch to indicator mode to pull the facts. Some indicators carry confidence-interval bounds and methodological comments; others are point estimates only.

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📊 Output

Each WHO GHO record contains 15 fields. Download the dataset as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

🧾 Schema

Field	Type	Example
🔖 indicatorCode	string	"MDG_0000000001"
🏷️ indicatorName	string | null	"Ambient air pollution attributable DALYs..."
🌎 spatialDimType	string | null	"COUNTRY"
🏳️ countryCode	string | null	"USA"
🌍 parentLocation	string | null	"Americas"
📅 year	number | null	2014
⚧ sex	string | null	"SEX_FMLE"
👶 ageGroup	string | null	"AGEGROUP_MONTHS0-11"
💯 value	string | null	"5.3 [5.2-5.4]"
🔢 numericValue	number | null	5.305117949
⬇️ low	number | null	5.220964115
⬆️ high	number | null	5.391840117
💬 comments	string | null	null
🌐 language	string | null	"EN"
🕒 scrapedAt	ISO 8601	"2026-05-20T22:15:28.206Z"

📦 Sample records

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✨ Why choose this Actor

	Capability
🌍	WHO-official source. Pulls directly from the Global Health Observatory data service used by WHO itself.
📚	3,058 indicators. From under-5 mortality to ambient air pollution to mental-health workforce density.
🌐	194 member states. Full WHO geographic coverage with ISO-3 codes and parent-region rollups.
📅	Deep history. Many indicators span 50+ years for trend analysis.
🧮	Confidence intervals. Numeric value plus low/high CI bounds where WHO publishes them.
⚡	Fast. 10 catalog rows in 2 seconds, 10 indicator rows in 5 seconds.
🚫	No authentication. Works with the public WHO GHO surface. No login, no API key.

📊 The WHO GHO is the most-cited global-health reference dataset in academic and policy work. Reliable, structured exports turn it from a research curiosity into a production data source.

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📈 How it compares to alternatives

Approach	Cost	Coverage	Refresh	Filters	Setup
⭐ WHO GHO Scraper (this Actor)	$5 free credit, then pay-per-use	3,058 indicators, 194 states	Live per run	indicator, country, year	⚡ 2 min
WHO public CSV downloads	Free	Per-indicator manual download	Manual	None	🐢 Hours per topic
Commercial global-health platforms	$$$$/year	Curated + enriched	Variable	Many	⏳ Procurement
In-house WHO scraper	Engineering cost	Whatever you build	Whatever you maintain	Whatever you build	🕒 Weeks

Pick this Actor when you want WHO GHO data in a clean, scheduled, reproducible dataset without writing your own data service client.

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🚀 How to use

1. 📝 Sign up. Create a free account with $5 credit (takes 2 minutes).
2. 🌐 Open the Actor. Go to the WHO GHO Health Indicators Scraper page on the Apify Store.
3. 🎯 Set input. Start in catalog mode to discover indicators, then switch to indicator mode with a code.
4. 🚀 Run it. Click Start and let the Actor collect your data.
5. 📥 Download. Grab your results in the Dataset tab as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

⏱️ Total time from signup to downloaded dataset: 3-5 minutes. No coding required.

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💼 Business use cases

🧬 Public Health Research Disease-burden modelling across countries Mortality trend analyses over decades Risk-factor association studies Maternal and child health surveillance	📋 Health Policy & Advocacy SDG progress dashboards Country comparisons for funder briefings Programmatic-area gap analyses Universal-health-coverage scorecards
🌍 Global Health NGOs Intervention prioritisation by indicator Donor-report data backbones Outbreak-response baselines Cross-region equity analyses	📰 Data Journalism Comparative country reporting Trend visualisations for explainers SDG accountability stories Public-health investigative pieces

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🔌 Automating WHO GHO Scraper

Control the scraper programmatically for scheduled runs and pipeline integrations:

• 🟢 Node.js. Install the apify-client NPM package.
• 🐍 Python. Use the apify-client PyPI package.
• 📚 See the Apify API documentation for full details.

The Apify Schedules feature lets you trigger this Actor on any cron interval. Monthly indicator refreshes keep dashboards in sync with WHO's release cadence.

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🌟 Beyond business use cases

Global health data powers more than commercial workflows. The same structured records support research, education, civic projects, and personal initiatives.

🎓 Research and academia Epidemiology and global-health coursework Reproducible peer-reviewed studies Health-economics modelling theses Comparative-effectiveness datasets	🎨 Personal and creative Public-health dashboards for hobbyists Country trend visualisations Educational content for health bloggers Personal explainers on SDG progress
🤝 Non-profit and civic Local health-equity advocacy reports Diaspora-community health briefings Volunteer-NGO programme planning Citizen-science health projects	🧪 Experimentation Train country-clustering ML models Prototype mortality-forecasting tools Test multi-indicator health-index designs Validate cross-country comparison APIs

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🤖 Ask an AI assistant about this scraper

Open a ready-to-send prompt about this ParseForge actor in the AI of your choice:

• 💬 ChatGPT
• 🧠 Claude
• 🔍 Perplexity
• 🅒 Copilot

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions

🧩 How does it work?

Pick catalog mode to discover the 3,058 indicator codes, then switch to indicator mode with a code, an optional country list, and an optional year range. The Actor pulls every matching country-year-sex-age fact.

📏 How accurate is the data?

Every record comes from the WHO Global Health Observatory data service. Numeric values, confidence intervals, and methodological comments are preserved as published.

🔁 How often is the dataset refreshed?

WHO updates the GHO continuously as new estimates and country submissions arrive. Every run reads the live data service.

🧮 What stratifications are included?

Where WHO publishes them: sex (male, female, both sexes), age groups (AGEGROUP_* codes), spatial dimension (country, region, world), and the parent WHO region for the country.

📚 How do I find the right indicator code?

Run the Actor in catalog mode first. It returns 3,058 indicators with their codes and names. Pick the code, then re-run in indicator mode.

⏰ Can I schedule regular runs?

Yes. Use Apify Schedules to refresh indicators monthly or whenever WHO publishes updates. Pair with webhooks to push deltas into BigQuery or Snowflake.

⚖️ Is this data legal to use?

WHO publishes the GHO openly under a permissive license. Standard research, policy, and reporting use is accepted. Review WHO's terms for redistribution at scale.

💼 Can I use this data commercially?

Yes. The GHO is published openly for global use. Cite WHO appropriately when republishing.

💳 Do I need a paid Apify plan to use this Actor?

No. The free Apify plan is enough for testing and small runs (10 records per run). A paid plan lifts the limit and unlocks scheduling and larger datasets.

🔁 What happens if a run fails or gets interrupted?

Apify automatically retries transient errors. Partial datasets are preserved so you never lose progress.

🌍 Can I pull data for non-member states?

The GHO is organised around WHO's 194 member states. Some indicators include regional aggregates (spatialDimType: REGION or WORLD) where WHO publishes them.

🆘 What if I need help?

Our support team is here to help. Contact us through the Apify platform or use the Tally form linked below.

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🔌 Integrate with any app

WHO GHO Scraper connects to any cloud service via Apify integrations:

• Make - Automate multi-step workflows
• Zapier - Connect with 5,000+ apps
• Slack - Get run notifications in your channels
• Airbyte - Pipe health indicators into your warehouse
• GitHub - Trigger runs from commits and releases
• Google Drive - Export datasets straight to Sheets

You can also use webhooks to trigger downstream actions when a run finishes. Push fresh WHO indicators into your health-dashboard backend, or alert your team in Slack when a country submits new estimates.

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🔗 Recommended Actors

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• 💊 EMA Medicines Scraper - EU authorised medicines register
• 📈 IndexMundi Scraper - Cross-country demographic and economic indicators

💡 Pro Tip: browse the complete ParseForge collection for more global-data scrapers.

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🆘 Need Help? Open our contact form to request a new scraper, propose a custom data project, or report an issue.

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⚠️ Disclaimer: this Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the World Health Organization. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Only publicly available WHO GHO data is collected.