Table 2

Characteristics of 1220 dietary surveys in the GDD 2017

Survey characteristicsOverallPublic surveys*Private surveys*
Surveys included†, n1220864356
No of countries represented, n188174128
Per cent of the global population represented in 2015, %99.098.187.4
Demographic characteristics reported by surveys‡
Children/adolescents (ages 0–19 years), %73.976.468.0
 Age 0–0.4926.335.15.1
 Age 0.5–0.9926.935.46.2
 Age 1–1.929.334.317.0
 Age 2–5.932.535.625.0
 Age 6–1032.033.628.1
 Age 11–1449.857.331.7
 Age 15–1961.264.653.1
Adults (ages 20+ years), %64.557.282.3
 Age 20–4462.556.477.2
 Age 45–6961.756.375.0
 Age 70+32.825.650.3
Level of educational attainment, %30.224.743.5
Urban versus rural residence, %
 Both urban and rural52.262.327.8
 Urban only4.70.714.3
 Rural only1.40.04.8
 Information not available41.737.053.1
Pregnancy/lactation status of women, %11.215.21.7
Year of data collection, %
 1980–199936.142.021.6
 2000–201563.958.078.4
Representativeness
 National, No surveys (% of total)
 No countries (% of global population represented)
880 (72.1)
185 (99.6)
664 (76.9)
172 (99.6)
216 (60.7)
95 (84.7)
 Subnational, No surveys (% of total)
 No countries (% of global population represented)
207 (17.0)
75 (81.6)
146 (16.9)
45 (67.8)
61 (17.1)
46 (46.2)
 Community, No surveys (% of total)
 No countries (% of global population represented)
133 (10.9)
48 (70.2)
54 (6.3)
19 (35.1)
79 (22.2)
36 (48.2)
Response rate, %
 60%–100%37.824.869.4
 20%–59%3.21.28.1
 <20%5.78.00.0
 Information not available53.466.122.5
Sampling methodology, %
 Probability sampling, with survey weights38.439.536.0
 Probability sampling, no survey weights32.732.932.3
 Non-probability sampling4.20.712.6
 Information not available24.727.019.0
Median (5th, 95th percentile) no of GDD dietary food groups per survey§6.0 (1.0, 30.0)3.0 (1.0, 14.0)11.0 (2.0, 47.0)
Dietary assessment method
 Single or multiple recalls/records
  No surveys, (% of total)286 (23.4))96 (11.1)190 (53.4)
  No countries, (% global population represented)68 (78.0)90 (40.4)64 (84.7)
 Food frequency questionnaire
  No surveys, (% of total)503 (41.2)346 (40.0)157 (44.1)
  No countries, (% of global population represented)164 (94.3)141 (89.5)89 (57.2)
 DHS questionnaire
  No surveys, (% of total)193 (15.8)190 (22.0)3 (0.8)
  No countries, (% of global population represented)70 (53.9)69 (53.4)2 (1.7)
 Biomarker (urine sodium, haemoglobin)
  No surveys, (% of total)160 (13.1)154 (17.8)6 (1.7)
  No countries, (% of global population represented)60 (70.7)59 (71.3)5 (2.5)
 Household survey
  No surveys, (% of total)78 (6.4)78 (9.0)0 (0.0)
  No countries, (% of global population represented)27 (15.1)27 (15.3)0 (0.0)
Data type¶, %
 Individual-level microdata58.665.641.6
 Aggregated stratum-level distributions41.434.458.4
Level of data collection, %
 Individual level92.589.899.2
 Household level5.77.80.8
 Information not available1.72.40.0
  • *Public surveys are those retrieved from publicly available databases; private surveys are non-publicly available surveys that are contributed by a data owner (corresponding member); .

  • †Each survey count represents a country-specific survey year. When data collection for a single survey was performed over multiple years, the median survey year was used (or first year if 2 years).

  • ‡Because data on children/adolescents (0–19 years), urban/rural residence, education, pregnancy/lactation and response rate were not collected in GDD 2010 (41.7% of total surveys), these percentages may underestimate available data in these surveys. Values are shown for surveys including data on that subgroup and may sum to greater than 100% because a survey can include multiple subgroups.

  • §Based on the food groups collected in GDD 2010 (up to 21, 41.7% of surveys) and GDD 2017 (up to 54, 58.3% of surveys), not including biomarker surveys.

  • ¶Individual-level microdata represent individual-level data in possession of the GDD. Aggregated stratum-level distributions are based on individual-level data aggregated by data owners in standardised subgroups jointly stratified by age, sex, education and urban/rural residence, and pregnancy/lactation status, as available; and provided to the GDD including stratum-specific means, SD and percentiles of intake. Nearly all (94.2%) surveys collected in 2014–2020 (GDD 2017 round of data collection) were individual-level microdata.

  • DHS, Demographic Health Survey; GDD, Global Dietary Database.