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Data

Paralytic polio: estimated cases by world region

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About this data

Paralytic polio: estimated cases by world region
The total estimated number of polio cases.
Source
World Health Organization (2019); World Health Organization (2024) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
April 8, 2024
Next expected update
August 2025
Date range
1980–2023
Unit
cases

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Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The World Health Organization (WHO) provides a historical dataset on polio cases, but it is no longer available directly from the WHO website. Instead the web archived version can be downloaded here and it can be accessed by opening in 'Read Only' mode.

Retrieved on
April 9, 2024
Retrieved from
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/poliomyelitis
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
World Health Organization - Historical Polio Dataset (2019).
Retrieved on
April 8, 2024
Retrieved from
https://extranet.who.int/polis/public/CaseCount.aspx
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
World Health Organization - Polio cases (2024).

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline
Notes on our processing step for this indicator

Total estimated cases are calculated from reported cases using correction factors from Tebbens et al. (2010).

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Paralytic polio: estimated cases by world region”, part of the following publication: Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser (2016) - “Global Health”. Data adapted from World Health Organization. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20250624-125417/grapher/number-of-estimated-paralytic-polio-cases-by-world-region.html [online resource] (archived on June 24, 2025).
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

World Health Organization (2019); World Health Organization (2024) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

World Health Organization (2019); World Health Organization (2024) – processed by Our World in Data. “Paralytic polio: estimated cases by world region” [dataset]. World Health Organization, “WHO Historical Polio Dataset”; World Health Organization, “Polio Cases and Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) Surveillance” [original data]. Retrieved July 20, 2025 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20250624-125417/grapher/number-of-estimated-paralytic-polio-cases-by-world-region.html (archived on June 24, 2025).