PRB's DataFinder Updated and Expanded
by Mary Mederios Kent
(November 2008) Guinea-Bissau and Liberia have the world's highest birth rates, but India produces the most births—because of India's combination of moderately high fertility and 1 billion-plus population size. These are a few facts users can find through PRB's searchable database, DataFinder, which has just been updated with the 2008 World Population Data Sheet
DataFinder includes 143 variables for more than 200 countries and 29 world regions and subregions. Users can select a combination of countries or regions to be ranked on a specific variable or to compare on several variables. User-created tables can be downloaded as Excel files to use for further analysis. Rates and values can be displayed on world maps, revealing geographic patterns of demographic, health, or environment variables. The map below show the distinct pattern of infant mortality rates across the continents, as an example.
Infant Mortality Rate (Infant Deaths per 1,000 Births)
Source: 2008 World Population Data Sheet.
The list of variables on population, health, and the environment has just been expanded. Some new additions are:
- Numbers of births, deaths, and infant deaths (in addition to rates).
- The total urban population and the population living in urban areas of 750,000 or more residents.
- Indicators of malnutrition.
- The number of motor vehicles per capita.
- Estimates of HIV/AIDS prevalence for 2001 and 2007.
A separate database in DataFinder provides 579 variables with recent demographic, social, and economic data for U.S. states and the District of Columbia, which can be arrayed in tables, graphs, or maps. Users can also request data for metropolitan, nonmetropolitan, and micropolitan areas within states.
DataFinder will continue to be updated and expanded as new statistics become available.
Mary Mederios Kent is senior demographic editor at PRB.