Health and Public Health Data Hub

Access health and demographic data for any country from the World Bank. Query mortality rates, life expectancy, immunization coverage, health expenditure, infectious disease prevalence, and demographic indicators with WHO benchmarks and SDG 3 target comparisons.

Actions

query_health_data

Fetch health and demographic data for a country or region from the World Bank World Development Indicators database. Uses the World Bank countries API for fuzzy country name resolution.

Required fields:

• action — "query_health_data"
• country_or_region (string) — Country or region name in plain English (e.g., "Japan", "Kenya", "United States", "South Asia", "Sub-Saharan Africa"). The tool searches the World Bank countries API for exact and partial matches.

Optional fields:

• health_topic (string) — Health topic to query. Default: "all".
  • "mortality" — Maternal mortality, under-5 mortality, infant mortality, neonatal mortality, death rate
  • "life_expectancy" — Overall life expectancy, male life expectancy, female life expectancy
  • "immunization" — Measles, DPT, and Hepatitis B immunization coverage rates
  • "expenditure" — Health expenditure per capita and as % of GDP, physicians per 1,000, hospital beds per 1,000, nurses/midwives per 1,000
  • "infectious_disease" — Tuberculosis incidence, HIV prevalence
  • "demographics" — Birth rate, death rate, fertility rate, total population, population ages 0-14, population ages 65+, urban population percentage
  • "all" — All health indicators listed above
• time_period (string) — Time period for data. Default: "latest".
  • "latest" — Most recent available data point
  • "YYYY" — Specific year (e.g., "2020")
  • "YYYY:YYYY" — Year range (e.g., "2015:2020")
  • "last5" — Last 5 years of data
  • "last10" — Last 10 years of data
  • Also accepts "last_5_years" and "last_10_years"
• include_who_benchmarks (boolean) — Include WHO benchmarks and SDG 3 target comparisons for applicable indicators. Shows target value, current value, difference, and whether the target is met. Default: true.
• include_demographic_context (boolean) — Include population context (total population, age distribution under 14 and over 65) alongside health data. Automatically skipped when the topic is already "demographics". Default: true.
• include_regional_comparison (boolean) — Include a note about regional comparison data availability. Default: false.

Example — Life expectancy for a country:

{
  "action": "query_health_data",
  "country_or_region": "Japan",
  "health_topic": "life_expectancy",
  "time_period": "latest"
}

Example — Mortality data with WHO benchmarks:

{
  "action": "query_health_data",
  "country_or_region": "Kenya",
  "health_topic": "mortality",
  "include_who_benchmarks": true
}

Example — All health data over a time range:

{
  "action": "query_health_data",
  "country_or_region": "India",
  "health_topic": "all",
  "time_period": "2015:2020"
}

Example — Immunization coverage with demographic context:

{
  "action": "query_health_data",
  "country_or_region": "Nigeria",
  "health_topic": "immunization",
  "include_demographic_context": true,
  "include_who_benchmarks": true
}

Example — Health expenditure without benchmarks:

{
  "action": "query_health_data",
  "country_or_region": "United States",
  "health_topic": "expenditure",
  "include_who_benchmarks": false,
  "time_period": "last5"
}

Response Format

Responses include:

• country — Resolved country name from World Bank metadata.
• iso_code — ISO country code.
• region — World Bank region name.
• income_level — World Bank income classification.
• query — Echo of the topic and time period requested.
• indicators — Per-indicator results, each with:
  • name — Human-readable indicator name
  • data — Array of data points with year, value, and unit
  • latest_value — Most recent value
  • latest_year — Year of most recent value
• who_benchmarks — When enabled, per-indicator comparison to WHO/SDG targets:
  • target — WHO target value
  • current_value — Country's current value
  • difference — Gap from target
  • unit — Measurement unit
  • sdg — Related SDG target (e.g., SDG 3.1, SDG 3.2, SDG 3.b, SDG 3.3)
  • assessment — "Meets target" or "Above/Below target"
  • meets_target — Boolean
• demographic_context — When enabled, population total, ages 0-14 percentage, and ages 65+ percentage.
• regional_comparison_note — When enabled, notes the region for which comparison data is available.

If a country name is not found, the response returns an error with a suggestion to try the full country name.

WHO Benchmarks & SDG Targets

For mortality and disease indicators, lower values are better (below target = meets target). For immunization, higher values are better (above target = meets target).

Health Indicators by Topic

Common Workflows

1. Country health profile — Call with health_topic: "all" to get a complete health snapshot with WHO benchmark comparisons.
2. SDG 3 progress check — Query mortality and immunization topics with include_who_benchmarks: true to assess progress toward health SDG targets.
3. Health system assessment — Use health_topic: "expenditure" to review healthcare spending, physician density, and hospital capacity.
4. Cross-country comparison — Make separate calls for different countries with the same topic and time period, then compare results.
5. Disease burden analysis — Use health_topic: "infectious_disease" with time_period: "last10" to track TB and HIV trends.

Important Notes

• Data is sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators database.
• health_topic must be one of: mortality, life_expectancy, immunization, expenditure, infectious_disease, demographics, all. Invalid values produce a validation error.
• time_period is validated and must be "latest", a 4-digit year, a YYYY:YYYY range, or "last5"/"last10"/"last_5_years"/"last_10_years". Invalid formats produce a validation error.
• Data availability varies by country and indicator; some countries may have gaps.
• Most recent data may be 1-3 years behind the current year.
• All indicator data is fetched concurrently for performance.
• Demographic context is automatically excluded when the health topic is already "demographics" to avoid duplicate data.