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Home > Statistics > WISTAT: Women's Indicators and Statistics Database Guide

Author

United Nations Statistics Division

CD-ROM:

TC Wilson Library Gov Pub (US Desk Ref) CD-ROM HQ1154 .W57x 1999 Non-Circulating

Use It Because

WISTAT is a compilation of currently available international statistics on gender, population and social development for 206 countries or areas of the world.

It presents 76 tables, mainly covering the period 1970-1997, on nine subject areas: population, education, economic activity, household, marital status and fertility, health and health services, reproductive health and reproductive rights, public affairs and political participation, violence, and national product and expenditure. See the Lists of Topics for a list of all tables.

Within each topic, data are available for at least one year or period. Most topics have data for four periods --- 1970, 1980, 1990 and latest available year. Some have data for only the latest available year; a few have projections up to the year 2010.

What is it?

Searchable Database

Where is it?

On GPL Workstations

What does it give you?

Tables, Charts

Format

CD-ROM/DVD-ROM

Accessed Data

Aggregate/Summary Data

Data Documentation

User Guide

Data Documentation Contents

reliability, timeliness, country names, and time periods/frequencies

User Can

View, Print & Download

Can Tables Be Modified?

Restrict by rows, columns and values

What Formats Can Work Be Saved In?

text, spreadsheets, html

Best Feature(s)

Only source for much of its contents

Help With:

Using Spreadsheets
Using Beyond 20/20
Statistical Sources
Using Wistat In Spreadsheets
Finding and opening a file
  1. From the Main Menu, click on Browse Wistat in Excel format to view the list of topics.
  2. From the list of topics, identify the topic you want to view.
  3. Under that topic, click on a period or year.
  4. Sources, technical notes and footnotes are listed in the second sheet of each file. To open this sheet, click on the tab at the lower left edge of the spreadsheet labeled "Notes".
Using Wistat In Spreadsheets: Finding and opening a file: 1. From the Main Menu, click on Browse Wistat in Excel format to view the list of topics. 2. From the list of topics, identify the topic you want to view. 3. Under that topic, click on a period or year. Return to Top

Using Wistat With Beyond 20/20 Browser Finding and opening a table
  1. If you are not already in the Find dialogue box, click the Find button on the toolbar.
  2. Confirm or modify the path shown in the Directory box so that it's pointing to the folder that contains the tables you want to browse.
  3. Select the category that most likely contains the table you need. A list of tables belonging to that category is displayed.
    • Note: If you want to see more information about what a particular table contains, click on its name and click the Summary bar.
  4. Open a Beyond 20/20 table by double-clicking on its name in the Find dialogue box.
Next | Return to Top
2. Confirm or modify the path shown in the Directory box so that it's pointing to the folder that contains the tables you want to browse. 3. Select the category that most likely contains the table you need. A list of tables belonging to that category is displayed. (Note: If you want to see more information about what a particular table contains, click on its name and click the Summary bar.) 4. Open a Beyond 20/20 table by double-clicking on its name in the Find dialogue box.

Reading the table
Next | Return to Top
Beyond 20/20 concepts: 1. A table is an integrated presentation of multi-dimensional data and descriptive text prepared with the Beyond 20/20 Builder. Tables are composed of descriptive components, dimension field information and data values. When a table is opened, the Browser presents the data in a table view. 2. A dimension describes an attribute of the table data, e.g., sex, age group or time period. Most of the tables in Wistat 4 have two to five dimensions. 3. An item is an element in a dimension, e.g. male is an item in the sex dimension, and 1970, an item in the period dimension. 4. A label is a title or display heading of an item. An item can have more than one label although you see only one label at a time. For example, United States is a label for the country code 840. Another label for code 840 is 3.1, which identifies the geographic region in which the United States is found.

Switching table dimensions
You can change your view of the table by dragging and dropping dimension tiles with the mouse, one at a time. For example, instead of seeing residence by sex, you can switch to sex by residence, as below.
Next | Return to Top
You can change your view of the table by dragging and dropping dimension tiles with the mouse, one at a time. For example, instead of seeing residence by sex, you can switch to sex by residence, as below.

Nesting table dimensions
You can view more than one dimension at the same time along either the rows or the columns by nesting dimensions.
  1. With the left mouse button depressed, slowly drag the desired dimension tile from the dimension bar to the top or bottom edge of the column labels, or to the right or left edge of the row labels, until a thick line appears.
  2. Release the mouse button to nest the dragged dimension.
Next | Return to Top
You can view more than one dimension at the same time along either the rows or the columns by nesting dimensions: 1. With the left mouse button depressed, slowly drag the desired dimension tile from the dimension bar to the top or bottom edge of the column labels, or to the right or left edge of the row labels, until a thick line appears. 2. Release the mouse button to nest the dragged dimension.

Selecting data from a table
To reduce the amount of displayed data, to move data to another application, or to chart data, you first need to select it. Next | Return to Top
Selecting data from a table: To reduce the amount of displayed data, to move data to another application, or to chart data, you first need to select it. To select a row or column of data, click on the corresponding row or column heading. To select multiple adjacent rows or columns, drag the mouse across the row or column headings. To select non-adjacent rows or columns, press the Ctrl key while you click on the row and/or column headings. With the mouse pointer placed within your highlighted selection, click the right mouse button for the short-cut menu, then choose the desired operation. In this example, the 1980 and 1990 data would be hidden if 1970 was chosen to show.s

Searching for items along a dimension
You can reduce the items shown along a dimension by displaying only the ones you want. To search for items along a dimension:
  1. Make the dimension active by clicking on the appropriate dimension tile.
  2. Click the Search button on the toolbar.
  3. In the Search dialogue box, select the field to search, then enter the appropriate content to constrain your search.
  4. When you click OK, Beyond 20/20 searches the active items and shows only those that satisfy your criteria.
View Result
Searching for items along a dimension You can reduce the items shown along a dimension by displaying only the ones you want. To search for items along a dimension: 1. Make the dimension active by clicking on the appropriate dimension tile. 2. Click the Search button on the toolbar. 3. In the Search dialogue box, select Data if you want to search the data, then enter minimum and/or maximum values to constrain your search. When you click OK, Beyond 20/20 searches the active items and shows only those that satisfy your criteria. or In the Search dialogue box, select the non-data field you want to search, then enter the text string that you want to search for in the Text to Find box. When you click OK, Beyond 20/20 searches the field you selected and shows only those items that contain the text string specified. (Note: This feature can be used to select countries or areas belonging to the same geographic region. To do this, make the COUNTRY OR AREA dimension active by clicking on it, then click the Search button on the toolbar. In the Search dialogue box, select Region, then enter a region code. Only data from countries or areas in the selected region will be shown.) Next | Return to Top

The result of searching for United States only is a single row of US data.

Sorting data along a dimension
  1. Make the dimension active by clicking on the appropriate dimension tile.
  2. Click the Sort button on the toolbar.
  3. Choose the field and sort type and click OK.
Next | Return to Top

View Result
You can sort items along a dimension to reorder them in the table view. To sort items along a dimension: 1. Make the dimension active by clicking on the appropriate dimension tile. 2. Click the Sort button on the toolbar. 3. If you want to sort the dimension based on the data values, select Data in the Sort dialogue box. Then select either Increasing or Decreasing, and click OK. or If you want to sort the dimension based on the codes or labels associated with it, select the non-data field that you want to sort on, then indicate the desired Sort Option and click OK.

The result of sorting the data for total population in decreasing order.

Charting data
To create a chart:
  1. Select the rows and/or columns that you want to chart.
  2. With the mouse pointer in the chart view, click the right mouse button to see the charting short-cut menu and choose Chart.
  3. Make a selection and click OK to view the new chart.
Next | Return to Top
To create a chart: Select the rows and/or columns that you want to chart. With the mouse pointer in the chart view, click the right mouse button to see the charting short-cut menu and choose Chart. Make a selection and click OK to view the new chart.

ChartBrowse
The ChartBrowse feature lets you view a series of charts in succession so that you can quickly and easily see variations in the data.
  1. With the mouse pointer in the chart view, select one of the headings in the title of the chart to make that dimension active.
  2. Use the Previous Item and Next Item arrows on the toolbar to chart the previous or next item.
Next | Return to Top


Saving a table
To save a table (or a subset of a table),
  1. Choose File Save As...
  2. There are several file formats to choose from, but Comma-Separated (*.csv) is probably the best as it will open automatically in MS Excel and any text editing program like Notepad.
For further help on using Beyond 20/20 Browser: You can go back to the main menu to play the tutorial, or use the on-line Help within the browser by clicking Help or pressing the F1 key.

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Statistical Sources
  1. Alan Guttmacher Institute, Into A New World: Young Women's Sexual and Reproductive Lives (1998).
  2. Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, The World's Abortion Laws 1998 (wall chart).
  3. Gomez, Elsa G., "Sex Discrimination and Excess Female Mortality in Childhood" in Gender, Women and Health in the Americas (Washington, D.C., PAHO,1993).
  4. Inter-Parliamentary Union, Women in Parliaments 1945-1995, A World Statistical Survey, Series "Reports and Documents", no. 23, and http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm (as at April 1999).
  5. ________, Women's Suffrage http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/suffrage.htm (as at June 1999).
  6. International Labour Office, The Cost of Social Security, Tenth through Fourteenth International Inquiries (Geneva, various years from 1981 to 1996).
  7. ________, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, Fourth edition (database on diskettes, 1996).
  8. ________, Labour statistics database (LABORSTA, as at August 1998).
  9. ________, Yearbook of Labour Statistics, (Geneva, various years through 1998).
  10. International Labour Organization, "More than 120 Nations Provide Paid Maternity Leave", Press Release 12 February 1998 (ILO/98/7).
  11. ________, Caribbean Multidisciplinary Advisory Team, Digest of Caribbean Labour Statistics 1997 (Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, 1998).
  12. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and World Health Organization, Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic, June 1998 (Geneva, 1998).
  13. League of Arab States, Pan-Arab Project for Child Development (PAPCHILD), Maternal and Child Health Surveys. PAPCHILD is a regional research programme initiated in 1998 by the League of Arab States with the collaboration of the Arab Gulf Programme for the United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Statistics Division of the United Nations Secretariat. The results of participating countries’ surveys are published by the League of Arab States and the collaborating agency in each country in country reports.
  14. Macro International, Inc., Demographic and Health Surveys (Calverton and Colombia, Maryland, United States of America). The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) are a project funded primarily by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to conduct national sample surveys on fertility, family planning and maternal and child health. More than thirty countries have participated in the DHS. The results are published by Macro International, Inc., in individual country reports and in its Comparative Studies series. Data from DHS cited in Wistat were compiled from these reports.
  15. South Pacific Commission, Pacific Island Populations, Revised edition (Noumea, New Caledonia, 1998).
  16. Spain, Ministerio de Asuntos Sociales (Social Affairs Ministry), Instituto de la Mujer (Women's Institute), and Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences), Mujeres Latinoamericanas en Cifras (Madrid and Santiago, Chile, 1990-1994). Nineteen country reports have been issued in this series.
  17. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Demographic Yearbook 1990 (Moscow Finstatinform, 1990). In Russian.
  18. United Nations, reports of the Secretary General, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1987, 1989, 1993 and 1998 on Personnel Questions: Composition of the Secretariat (A/10184, A/31/154, A/35/528, A/42/636, A/44/604, A/48/559 and A/53/375).
  19. ________, Administrative Committee on Co-ordination (ACC), Note by the Consultative Committee on Administrative Questions (Personnel and General Administrative Questions) on Personnel Statistics, 1993 and 1999 (ACC/1993/PER/R.16 and ACC/1999/PER/R.10).
  20. ________, Age Patterns of Fertility, 1995-2000: The 1998 Revision (database on diskettes, 1998).
  21. ________, Compendium of Housing Statistics 1975-77 (United Nations publications, Sales No. E/F.80.XVII.4).
  22. ________, Compendium of Human Settlements Statistics 1983 and 1995 (United Nations publications, Sales Nos. E/F.84.XVII.5 and E/F.95.XVII.11).
  23. ________, Demographic Yearbook (United Nations publication, annual editions, 1973 -1997) and Demographic Statistics Database (up to January 1999), unpublished data.
  24. ________, Estimates and projections of populations by sex and five-year age groups, 1950-2050, The 1998 Revision (database on diskettes, 1998).
  25. ________, Fertility Behavior in the Context of Development: Evidence from the World Fertility Survey, Population Studies, No. 100 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.86.XIII.5).
  26. ________, First Marriage: Patterns and Determinants (United Nations publication, ST/ESA/SER.R/76, 1988).
  27. ________, Levels and Trends of Contraceptive Use as Assessed in 1994 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.XIII.13).
  28. ________, National Accounts Statistics Database (April 1999), unpublished.
  29. ________, Patterns of First Marriage: Timing and Prevalence (United Nations publication, ST/ESA/SER.R/111, 1990).
  30. ________, "Some Aspects of Family Planning Program and Fertility in Selected ECA Member States", African Population Study Series No. 9 (1985).
  31. ________, World Abortion Polices 1999 (wall chart) (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.99.XIII.5, 1999).
  32. ________, World Contraceptive Use 1998 (wall chart) (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.99.XIII.4).
  33. ________, World migrant populations: the foreign-born, database compiled by the Population Division of the United Nations Secretariat.
  34. ________, World Population Prospects, The 1998 Revision, Volume I: Comprehensive Tables (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.99.XIII.9).
  35. United Nations Children's Fund, Child Malnutrition: Country Profiles (New York, 1993) and underweight statistics database (as at December 1998), unpublished.
  36. ________, Database on breast-feeding (as at December 1998), unpublished.
  37. ________, State of the World's Children (New York, Oxford University Press, annual editions, 1994 -1999).
  38. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Compendium of Statistics on Illiteracy, Statistical Reports and Studies, No. 31 (Paris, 1990).
  39. ________, Statistical Yearbook (Paris, annual editions, 1986 -1998) and unpublished data.
  40. ________, Statistics of Educational Attainment and Illiteracy, 1970-1980, CSR-E-44 (Paris, 1983).
  41. World Health Organization, Coverage of Maternity Care: A Listing of Available Information, fourth edition (Geneva, Switzerland, 1997, WHO/RHT/MSM/96.28).
  42. ________, Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition http://www.who.int/nutgrowthdb (as at April 1999).
  43. ________, The Tobacco Epidemic: A Global Public Health Emergency. Tobacco Alert (Special Issue, 1996).
  44. ________, WHO Database on Violence against Women (as at June 1999).
  45. ________, Water supply and sanitation coverage database (as at March 1998), unpublished.
Note: Additional data for Wistat 4 were provided by the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Pan American Health Organization, the Division for Advancement of Women and the Population Division of the United Nations Secretariat, and the World Health Organization.

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