Ghiyathat/nigeria-health-infrastructure-analysis

Analyzing 46,000+ Nigerian health facilities using Python to uncover geographic disparities and operational gaps # nigeria-health-infrastructure-analysis ## Table of Contents 1. Project Executive Summary 2. The Dataset 3. The Analytics Stack 4. Data Wrangling & Pre-processing 5. Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) & Insights 6. Key Outcomes & Findings 7. Challenges & Data Limitations 8. Recommendations for Policy Makers ### **1. Project Executive Summary** This project provides a comprehensive geospatial and operational evaluation of Nigeria’s healthcare infrastructure using a dataset of over 46,000 facilities. The study was born from the necessity to understand how healthcare resources are distributed across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, and more importantly, how functional those resources truly are. By leveraging Python for data orchestration, I examined the ratio of Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary facilities to identify critical bottlenecks in the referral system. A central theme of this analysis is the use of Facility Functionality as a proxy for regional socioeconomic status (SES); high rates of non-functional or Unknown status often correlate with systemic underfunding and geographic isolation. The ultimate goal of this work is to bridge the gap between raw data and public health policy. The findings pinpoint specific healthcare deserts—regions where the absence of functional specialized care poses a direct threat to maternal health and chronic disease management—offering a data-driven roadmap for targeted infrastructural investment. ### **2. The Dataset** * **Total Observations:** 46,605 health facilities. * **Geographic Scope:** Covers all 36 Nigerian states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). * **Key Data Points:** * **Identification:** Facility name and unique IDs (`global_id`). * **Location:** Nested geographic data including State and Local Government Area (LGA). * **Classification:** Facility levels (Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary) and specific categories (e.g., General Hospitals, Primary Health Centers, Teaching Hospitals). * **Oper …