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November 2017 Update on IPUMS-DHS
https://userforum.dhsprogram.com/index.phpindex.php?t=rview&goto=13493&th=6529#msg_13493
Have you checked out IPUMS-DHS recently? If not, now is a good time to revisit it (www.idhsdata.org). It makes DHS file management and data discovery easy.
IPUMS-DHS currently includes 101 samples from 22 African countries and India. The 2016 Malawi survey has been incorporated, as well as the 2015 Tanzania and Zimbabwe surveys. The newest South Africa, Ethiopia, and India surveys will be coming very soon.
Our site now includes nearly all of the DHS standard variables and most of the country-specific variables as well.
This month, we added contextual variables related to weather, population density, and conflict. You don't have to do any complicated merging--these have already been added to the records for women, young children, and births.
In fact with IPUMS-DHS, you never have to merge files for basic analysis. All the household information is already on the women's records; all of the household and women's information is on the young children and birth records.
(Men and couples are not in IPUMS-DHS yet, but they will be coming soon.)
Another great thing about IPUMS-DHS is that all the subnational regions have been harmonized across time, so you don't have to worry about boundary changes when you're conducting an over time analysis.