How every estimate on this dashboard is computed

1The survey‑weighted estimator

NFHS‑5 is a stratified, multi‑stage probability sample. To recover nationally and sub‑nationally representative quantities, every record is weighted by its design weight. DHS distributes the weight as an integer scaled by \(10^{6}\); the analytic weight is

For a binary indicator \(x_i\in\{0,1\}\) defined over an eligible population, the point estimate is the weighted proportion, expressed as a percentage:

where \(\mathcal{E}\) is the set of records that satisfy the indicator's eligibility rule (the denominator). Records outside \(\mathcal{E}\), and those with a missing value of \(x\), are excluded — they are coded NaN and never enter either sum. The reported sample size \(n=\lvert\mathcal{E}\rvert\) is the unweighted count and drives the reliability flag below.

Every indicator is produced at nine aggregation levels — national, state/UT, urban–rural, wealth quintile, women's education, and the state×residence, state×wealth, state×education cross‑tabs, plus district — by restricting \(\mathcal{E}\) to the corresponding subgroup. Mortality and fertility (§14) are the sole exception: they are model‑based rates, not weighted means.

2Reliability & small‑sample suppression

Sub‑national cells — particularly wealth or education breakdowns for small UTs, or rare‑event indicators whose eligible population is a slice of a slice — can rest on a handful of observations, where a single respondent moves the estimate by tens of points. Following the DHS reporting convention, every cell carries a reliability band derived from its unweighted denominator \(n\):

Model‑based rates (§14) use a more conservative band keyed to birth/exposure counts (suppress below ~250, caution below ~500), because rates require substantially larger samples than proportions for comparable precision.

3Child anthropometry & nutritional status

Children under 5 with a valid anthropometric z‑score (WHO Child Growth Standards). Z‑scores are stored ×100; the plausible range is \([-600,600]\) (i.e. \(\pm6\) SD); flagged values are excluded.

4Child immunization

Children age 12–23 months, with vaccination established from the card or the mother's recall — each antigen coded received if its status is in {1,2,3} (1 = date on card, 2 = mother's report, 3 = marked on card).

5Infant & young child feeding

Feeding indicators use the 24‑hour dietary recall, collected for the youngest child living with the mother. Food items are mapped to the eight WHO‑2021 IYCF food groups.

6Childhood illness & care‑seeking

Denominators here are rare‑event slices (only children who were ill), so sub‑national cells lean heavily on the reliability flag.

7Maternal & newborn care

Antenatal and postnatal indicators refer to the woman's most recent live birth in the 5 years before the survey; delivery indicators are computed at the birth level over all live births in that window.

8Family planning

Contraception indicators are defined over currently‑married (in‑union) women 15–49 — the standard CPR denominator. Computing over all women is a frequent error that understates use by ~14pp and inverts the education gradient.

9Women's nutrition & anaemia

Women 15–49. BMI is stored ×100 (so 18.5 kg/m² → 1850); pregnant women and those with a very recent birth are excluded from BMI per the survey convention.

10Women's empowerment, literacy & digital access

All women 15–49 (menstrual hygiene: 15–24).

11Household environment & assets

Household‑level indicators, weighted by HV005.

12Adult biomarkers & non‑communicable disease (15+)

Person‑level (PR recode), de‑facto household members aged 15+, computed separately for women (_w) and men (_m). Anaemia is offered in two framings — see the note.

Blood pressure uses the average of the 2nd and 3rd measurements (the 1st is discarded); out‑of‑range special codes are treated as missing.

13Men's indicators (15–49)

Men's recode (MR), restricted to 15–49 for fact‑sheet parity. Men's BMI is not carried in MR and is merged from the person recode (hb40) on the household‑member key, weighted by mv005.

14Mortality & fertility model‑based rate

These are not weighted proportions. They are synthetic‑cohort rates following the DHS Guide to Statistics, computed from the full birth history (BR) with woman‑level exposure (IR). Available at national / state / residence / wealth / education only — never by district, where they would be unstable.

Childhood mortality

Over a reference window of the 60 months before interview, deaths and child‑months of exposure are accumulated in eight age segments \(s\in\{[0,1),[1,3),[3,6),[6,12),[12,24),[24,36),[36,48),[48,60)\}\) months. Each segment yields a conditional death probability

where \(d_{i,s}\) flags a death of child \(i\) inside segment \(s\) and within the window, and \(e_{i,s}\) is the fraction of the segment the child actually lived in‑window. Segment probabilities are chained into cumulative mortality:

Targets — NNMR 24.9 (#25), IMR \({}_1q_0\) 35.2 (#26), U5MR \({}_5q_0\) 41.9 (#27), per 1,000 live births.

Fertility

Over the 36 months before interview, age‑specific fertility rates divide births in the window by woman‑years of exposure in each five‑year age group \(g\) (exposure drawn from all women, including the childless, in the IR file):

Targets — TFR 2.0 (#22), adolescent fertility ASFR(15–19) 43 per 1,000 (#24), sex ratio at birth 929 females per 1,000 males (#4).

15Known limitations

Every numeric target above (FS #n) refers to the official NFHS‑5 India Fact Sheet. A national estimate is accepted when it falls within ±0.5pp of its target (±1.0 for mortality rates, ±0.1 for TFR); the one documented exception is child anaemia.