The next two characters ('41') refer to the phase and number of the survey.

Based on your review of the questionnaires, select the file type you need for your unit of analysis. The complete list of data file types is here. IR is the individual (women's) recode file, MR is the men's recode, HR is the household recode, etc.

The second two letters ('IR') refer to the data file type.

The first two letters ('KE') refer to the country – in this case, Kenya.

The full description of file naming conventions is here, but briefly: The list of Zip files containing datasets are labeled with brief but meaningful names, such as KEIR41DT. If for some reason you requested a DHS datasets, but need to modify your request or give additional information to gain dataset approval, you can find the instructions in the video below: View the full tutorial on how to download DHS datasets in the video below: Follow instructions from the email you received after registering. Once you log in to, you will see the country, survey, and list of datasets that you are approved to download. The unit of analysis will help you determine which dataset you want to download in step 4. On the other hand, if for example you want to analyze data about women's contraceptive use, you will find that the relevant questions were asked in the women's questionnaire, and your unit of analysis is women. If the data you want to analyze was collected for everyone listed in the household questionnaire, your unit of analysis is probably household members.

Use the questionnaires to determine whether the information you want to analyze was collected in your survey of interest, and who you want to analyze (your unit of analysis). All final reports are free to download, and in some cases, can be ordered in hard copy, also for free. The questionnaires used to collect data for a specific survey are always included at the back of each survey's final report. Model questionnaires are used for each survey phase, but each country modifies the core questionnaire slightly to meet their needs. Familiarize yourself with the questionnaires used to collect the data that you want to analyze.

Recode download