Specialty disease databases
Global Burden of Disease (GBD)
IHME comparative epidemiology
"DALYs, deaths and disability for every disease, every country, every year."
About the resource
The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, run by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, produces comparative estimates of mortality, morbidity and risk-factor exposure for more than 300 diseases and injuries across 200+ countries and territories from 1990 onward. Its DALYs (Disability-Adjusted Life Years) are the standard cross-disease burden measure used in policy, planning and academic comparative-effectiveness work.
GBD releases ship roughly annually as the GBD Compare visualiser, the GHDx data downloader and detailed methods Lancet papers. The estimates are widely cited but also actively debated where they diverge from national statistics.
What you'd use it for
- 01Quote burden estimates (DALYs, deaths, YLDs) by country and year
- 02Compare disease burden across regions for policy briefs
- 03Decompose risk-factor attribution for a specific disease
- 04Cross-check national statistics against GBD modelled estimates
How you access it
GBD Compare web UIGHDx bulk downloadsAPI access