WHO household energy database

The WHO Household energy database monitors household energy use. The database contains nationally representative data from surveys and censuses on cooking, heating and lighting fuels. A proportion of the available surveys also include questions on stove type, time spent collecting fuel, and incidence of acute lower respiratory infection. The database is used to calculate national, rural and urban estimates for use of clean fuels and technologies (as well as the population affected), which WHO reports for Sustainable Development Goal Indicator 7.1.2.

Similarly, the database is used as input for estimating the percent of the population who use polluting fuels and stoves (as well as the number of people), such as those that burn wood, charcoal, animal dung, coal and kerosene – this serves a proxy for exposure to household air pollution. It also forms the basis for further assessment of the burden of disease attributable to household air pollution, which is associated with increased mortality and morbidity from acute lower respiratory infections among children, as well as from cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer among adults.

The database is regularly updated with new data from national censuses and large-scale household surveys such as the World Bank’s Living Standard and Measurement Survey and UNICEF’s Multiple Cluster Indicator Survey (MICS). The database is currently being upgraded in association with international and national surveys and censuses to include more data on heating and lighting fuels and technologies and emission rates, and to disaggregate data by sex and age whenever possible.