---
license: gpl
language:
- en
tags:
- medical
- surgery
- health
size_categories:
- 1K<n<10K
---
# Africa: Specialist surgical workforce (per 100,000 population)

## Dataset summary
- This dataset provides the density of specialist surgical workforce (per 100,000 population) across African countries, standardized and made ML-ready.
- Geographic scope: 54 African countries.
- Temporal coverage: 1960–2024 (annual).
- Units: Specialists per 100,000 population.

## Source & licensing
- Source: World Bank – World Development Indicators (WDI), Indicator code: `SH.MED.SAOP.P5`.
- License: World Bank Open Data terms. Users are responsible for compliance with the World Bank Data Terms of Use.

## Intended uses
- Cross-country analyses and visualization of health system capacity.
- As an input feature for ML models on health outcomes, access to care, and system readiness.
- Educational and exploratory data analysis.

Use with caution for early years and countries with imputed values (see data quality notes below).

## Processing summary
Missing values in the pivot were handled via:
- Linear interpolation along years (`limit_direction="both"`)
- Forward fill
- Backward fill
Countries with no observations across all years remain entirely NaN.

## Coverage and data quality notes
- Earliest non-missing observation (across all countries): 2008.
- Countries with no observations (all NaN in pivot):
  - Angola, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Libya, Mauritania, Sao Tome and Principe.