Notes on the data

Data is updated once a month. Last update: 15 September 2022

The COVID-19 Sex-Disaggregated Data Tracker assesses the availability of sex-disaggregated data from over 200 countries (and counting). Data was previously updated every two weeks, but from April 2021 was collected and reported monthly. Due to a decline in country reporting of COVID-19 data, we have paused manual data collection. The final round of manual data collection was conducted in June 2022. The dashboard will continue to be updated monthly with sex-disaggregated data on COVID-19 cases and deaths from the WHO COVID-19 Detailed Surveillance Data Dashboard. At present no other variables will be updated with new data. 

Methodology

As of September 2022

In January 2022 we began integrating sex-disaggregated data from the available WHO COVID-19 dashboards every month, supplemented by manual data collection every other month. However as global reporting of COVID-19 data has reduced, as of July 2022 we are pausing our manual data collection methodology. Sex-disaggregated data on COVID-19 cases and deaths will continue to be updated monthly with new available data from the WHO COVID-19 Detailed Surveillance Data Dashboard. At present no other indicators will be updated on the dashboard. If further manual data collection occurs, this page  will be updated to reflect this. 

As of January 2022

In January 2022, we adopted a new data collection strategy. The sex disaggregated data on the indicators (cases, deaths, hospitalisations and healthcare workers) available from the WHO COVID-19 Detailed Surveillance Data Dashboard and data for vaccinations from WHO Coronavirus Dashboard were integrated to the dashboard every month. This was followed by manual data collection every alternate month to supplement data on the indicators not available from WHO dashboard. Data for January 2022 include data from WHO dashboard alone, therefore information on testing and ICU admission was not updated in January. These data were available from manual data collection in February. In January, we compared the data from WHO dashboard and historical data from the tracker to ensure that the trend is consistent over the period. Further information can be found in our data release notes. 

The Tracker collects sex-disaggregated data on vaccinations, testing, confirmed cases (including among healthcare workers), hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths. The full data collection protocol can be found here

Release notes

Further notes on our methodology and release notes for each update are available to view here

Global and regional monthly update reports

As of October 2020, we will be producing monthly global reports alongside our data updates to summarise key messages from the trends we are seeing in the data. Regional update reports covering the South-East Asia & Eastern Mediterranean and African Regions will be produced quarterly. The reports can be explored here. 

Key points on the data

  • Data are collected from official government sources in each country. Sources are provided for each country for each update. These sources may change between updates as countries alter how they publish their sex-disaggregated data.
  • Wherever possible, dates reflect the date given by countries for data. In some cases where dashboards do not indicate the date of the data, the date the source was checked is used. 
  • The total number of cases and deaths reported may differ from the most recent numbers in a given country for two primary reasons: 1) Data is taken from the last date that sex-disaggregated data was available, which in some cases is not reported as regularly as total cases/deaths, and 2) these figures reflect the total number of cases / deaths where sex-disaggregated data is available. Some countries only report sex-disaggregated data on a portion of total cases/deaths. 
  • While increases in numbers of cases and deaths in men and women reported by countries capture the actual expansion of the epidemic, increases may also reflect shifts in the proportion of total cases or deaths for which a country reports sex-disaggregated data.
  • This data is intended to be used to understand the breakdown of cases and deaths by sex, not to monitor overall numbers of cases or deaths per country.
  • Definitions of cases and deaths recorded due to COVID-19 may vary by country. Countries change protocols and definitions of indicators over time and this may account for inconsistencies across historical comparisons. When possible, changes of this nature are noted. In all cases, sources are provided for reference and verification of data definitions and policies in place. 
  • When countries revise data, we seek to revise our historical data when possible. Often, historical sex disaggregations are not revised by the country and we are not able to correct our data. In these instances, we keep the historical data as published. These cases are noted in the release notes when a revision occurs.
  • While we may report case and death data for a given country, our Tracker calculates and presents the proportion of confirmed cases that have died only when this data is reported by the country at the same time point.
  • For all visualisations and summary statistics, the website uses numbers as provided by the country by age and sex. When countries do not provide numbers of men and women for an indicator but provide proportions, the numbers used have been calculated from the proportions given.

What is a confirmed case?

This tracker collects data on confirmed cases of COVID-19. A confirmed case of COVID-19, as defined by the World Health Organization, is based on laboratory confirmation of COVID-19 infection, irrespective of clinical signs and symptoms. However, international bodies can only report data as it is submitted by national governments and reporting institutions. Countries can define slightly different criteria for how cases are defined and reported.

It should also be noted that the case reporting chain, from doctor or laboratory to health department to national authority, can take several days. Thus the number of confirmed cases reported by any institution on a given day does not necessarily represent the actual number of new cases on that date. Case and contact definitions are based on the current available information and are regularly revised as new information accumulates.

Further information on case definitions, including suspect and probable cases, can be found via the WHO

Vaccination Indicators

The tracker uses the following indicators:

At Least One Dose – individuals who have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. This includes individuals who have received one dose of a two dose vaccine as well as individuals who have received a single dose vaccine.

Fully Vaccinated – individuals who have received all doses of required of their vaccine. This includes individuals who have received two doses of a two dose vaccine and individuals who have received a single dose of a single dose vaccine.

Fully vaccinated individuals will be counted in both indicators.

In cases where countries do not specify which dose individuals received or the completeness of vaccinations, that data will be captured as ‘at least one dose’. In cases where only fully vaccinated individuals are reported, that data will be entered for both indicators.

Indicators used for reporting, vaccines available and the population eligible for vaccination vary across countries and are changing over time. Our indicators seek to be as inclusive as possible to allow for comparisons across countries based on the sex-disaggregated vaccination data the countries provide. We publish the source for the vaccine data for each country and encourage anyone using this data to reference the sources and the countries’ documentation on these indicators.

Are all deaths from COVID-19 reported in this tracker? 

This tracker uses data as reported by national governments. It contains data on the breakdown of reported deaths among individuals with a confirmed COVID-19 infection. In many countries, only deaths in certain settings (e.g. hospitals) are being reported, and not everyone dying of COVID-19 will have been diagnosed with the virus.  This means that it is highly probable that current data does not provide a full picture of the total number of cases of COVID-19 or deaths resulting from an infection.


What is a case fatality rate? 

A case fatality rate (CFR) presents the number of deaths divided by the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 (people who have been tested and confirmed as having a COVID-19 infection).

An infection fatality rate (IFR) represents the number of deaths divided by the actual number of cases of COVID-19.

The total number of COVID-19 cases is not known. There are likely to be a significantly larger number of cases of COVID-19 than are being diagnosed through laboratory testing, given the lack of widespread testing in many countries, which makes any calculations of the IFR quite unreliable.

This tracker reports on the proportion of reported deaths divided by the number of confirmed cases within a country.


Why do men appear to be dying at higher rates from COVID-19?

For information on the gendered differences we are seeing in COVID-19, please refer to Men, Sex, Gender and COVID-19 page.