Health Statistics

Welcome to the Health Statistics guide! This guide is for CNPH students who need to find international, national, state and local health data.

Health data are gathered from a number of different types of sources from organizations working at the national, state and local levels. Data quality, collection methodology and accessibility will vary considerably. The source, collection methodology, purpose of collection, and limitations should be considered when evaluating and using data and statistics.

Some important sources of health data are: 

• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) The umbrella agency under which most national health data and statistics programs operate. Includes the Centers for Disease Control (CDC),  Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), among others.
• Centers for Diseases Control (CDC)  The primary federal agency for public health. Part of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

CDC Wonder: A portal to several CDC databases concerning health-related topics for public health information and numerical data sets such as AIDS/STDs, risk behaviors (the Behavioral Risk Surveillance System), mortality and natality statistics.

• National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) The nation's principal health statistics agency. It is a unit of the CDC. The NCHS homepage is also a central point for health statistics browsable by topic, links to surveys, publications, and other online tools.
• World Health Organization (WHO) An international coordinating agency for public health. An agency of the United Nations.

Useful WHO databases for data and statistics include:

Global Health Observatory Provides national statistics for health indicators, 

Global Health Observatory Map Gallery Includes an extensive list of maps on major health topics.

• Medline Plus Health Statistics This is a good resource for finding health data from the National Library of Medicine. Health statistics are numbers that summarize information related to health. Researchers and experts from government, private, and non-profit agencies and organizations collect health statistics and use the statistics to learn about public health and health care.

To learn more about finding health statistics: 

• Finding and Using Health Statistics A free online, self-paced course from the National Library of Medicine that describes different types of health statistics, how they are collected, and where they can be found

-Adapted from Cornell University Mann Library guide: Finding Health Data and Statistics: Getting Started