European Health for All database (HFA-DB)

Since the mid-1980s, Member States of the WHO European Region have been reporting essential health-related statistics to the Health for All (HFA) family of databases, making it one of WHO’s oldest sources of data. As it is based on reported data, rather than estimates, the HFA family of databases is also particularly valuable.

HFA databases bring together the indicators that are part of major monitoring frameworks relevant to the Region, such as Health 2020 and the Sustainable Development Goals. The indicators cover basic demographics, health status, health determinants and risk factors, as well as health care resources, expenditures and more.

HFA databases allow access to regional, national and some subnational indicators and metadata, which are visualized through interactive online tools in the Health for All explorer. Data, metadata, graphs and maps can be exported or shared online and on social media.

The following abbreviations are used in the indicator titles:

• SDR: age-standardized death rates (see HFA-DB user manual/Technical notes, page 13, for details)
• FTE: full-time equivalent
• PP: physical persons
• PPP$: purchasing power parities expressed in US $, an internationally comparable scale reflecting the relative domestic purchasing powers of currencies.