Education data from the DHS EdData household surveys

      DHS EdData household education surveys may either be linked to the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) or conducted independently. In linked surveys, following the completion of a DHS, a subsample of the DHS households is revisited and parents/guardians of school-age children are asked questions about education. The data from the DHS and DHS EdData are then linked to produce a data set with demographic, health, nutrition, and education data for the same set of households. In independent surveys, the DHS EdData household survey is not linked to another survey.

The DHS EdData household education survey is designed to provide information about the decisions households make about how much of what kind of education to invest in for household members. Specific topics in the DHS EdData core survey include:
  • the reasons for school-age children never having attended school, having dropped out of school, and for overage first-time school enrollment
  • household expenditures on schooling and other contributions to schooling
  • parent/guardian perceptions of the benefits of schooling and of school quality
  • distances and travel times to schools
  • the frequency of and reasons for student absenteeism.
Datasets from DHS EdData Surveys can be obtained through the DHS website.

Education Data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)

      Since its inception about 20 years ago, the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program has produced nationally-representative education data. Early DHS surveys provide data on literacy among women of reproductive age, and sometimes among men in a similar age range. Later surveys also provide data on adults' educational attainment and on children's school attendance ratios (primary and secondary, gross and net), all by sex and rural-urban residence. Under collaboration with DHS EdData, in 1999, DHS surveys began to include questions to collect primary school repetition and dropout rate data, and data on women's participation in literacy programs.

DHS education data are made available through a number of sites, including the DHS EdData Education Profiles, USAID/EGAT/ED's Global Education Database, DHS's web data set distribution, and DHS's STATcompiler (select 'Characteristics of Households' under Available Indicators).