Linking World Health Organization Global Health Observatory (GHO) as a source

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Alpha release

This source is currently in alpha. The interface and available tables may change.

The World Health Organization Global Health Observatory (GHO) connector syncs indicators, dimensions, dimension values, and more into the PostHog data warehouse, so you can analyze them alongside your product data.

Prerequisites

None. The World Health Organization Global Health Observatory (GHO) API is public, so no account or API key is needed.

Adding a data source

In PostHog, go to the Sources tab of the data pipeline section.
Click + New source and click Link next to this source.
Enter your credentials (see Configuration below) and click Next.
Select the tables you want to sync, choose a sync method and frequency, then click Import.

Once the syncs are complete, you can start querying this data in PostHog.

Pull public health statistics from the WHO Global Health Observatory.

The API is open, so no credentials are required. WHO publishes over 2,000 indicator series, which is far too much to sync wholesale, so enter the indicator codes you want, one per line. For example:

WHOSIS_000001
WHOSIS_000002
NCD_BMI_30A

You can look codes up in the indicators table or in the GHO OData API documentation. Observations for every code you enter land in a single indicator_data table.

WHO refreshes each indicator on its own publication cycle, typically annually, so a daily or weekly sync is more than enough to pick up changes.

You'll be asked for:

Indicator codes: for example WHOSIS_000001 WHOSIS_000002 NCD_BMI_30A.

Sync modes

Each table can be synced in one of several modes, depending on what the source supports:

Webhook (when available) – the source pushes changes to PostHog in real time. Fastest freshness, lowest ongoing cost, and the only mode that reliably captures updates and deletes.
Incremental – only new or updated rows are synced on each run, using a cursor field (such as an updated_at timestamp). Cheaper than a full refresh, but deletes aren't captured.
Append only – new rows are appended using a cursor field; existing rows are never updated. Ideal for immutable, append-only tables like event logs.
Full refresh – the whole table is reloaded on every sync. Use it when a table has no reliable cursor or when you need deletions reflected.

See sync methods for a full explanation of how each mode works and how to choose between them.

All World Health Organization Global Health Observatory (GHO) tables are full refresh. Each sync replaces the contents of the table.

Configuration

Option	Type	Required
`Indicator codes`	textarea	Yes

Supported tables

Table	Description	Sync method	Incremental field	Primary key
`indicators`	Catalog of every health indicator code the Global Health Observatory publishes.	Full refresh	—	—
`dimensions`	Dimensions observations can be disaggregated by, such as country, sex, or age group.	Full refresh	—	—
`dimension_values`	Values for every dimension, such as country codes for the COUNTRY dimension or SEX_MLE / SEX_FMLE for the SEX dimension.	Full refresh	—	—
`indicator_data`	Observations for every indicator code you configured, one row per country, year, and disaggregation.	Incremental, Full refresh	Date	—

Troubleshooting

If the connection fails with an authorization error, the API key is wrong, expired, or has been revoked. Create a new one, then reconnect the source.
If a table syncs no rows, the credential may not have access to that data. Check its permissions, then reconnect the source.

If your sync is failing or data looks wrong, see the Data warehouse troubleshooting guide. If that doesn't help, contact support – we're happy to help.