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Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services)
Formerly known as the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR), this agency was reauthorized and renamed through the Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999. A "Data and Surveys" section contains links to:

  • Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP and HCUPNet)
  • HIVNet
  • Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)
  • HIV and AIDS Costs and Use
  • Healthcare Informatics Standards

AgeSource/AgeStats Worldwide (AARP International)

AARP International has created a pair of annotated databases, AgeSource and AgeStats, to identify and link to aging-related information online. AgeSource covers "clearinghouses, databases, libraries, directories, bibliographies and reading lists, texts and reports, national statistical resources, training materials, and Web 'metasites' focused on aging or closely allied subjects." AgeStats focuses on statistics comparing the situation of older adults between countries and regions. Users can keyword-search the annotations and also limit the search by type of resource (e.g. statistical resource) and geographic area. The AARP International site also features "country profiles", which consists of a table of quick aging-related stats such as life expectancy, statutory retirement age, and total health care expenditures per capita. .

AgingResearchBiobank (National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
The AgingResearchBiobank has two components: Biologic Specimens (Biorepository) and Data Repository. It has a collection of biospecimens and related phenotypic and clinical data from NIA-funded clinical trials and longitudinal/observational studies. Only registered users can access and use the data and sample request systems on the AgingResearchBiobank website.

AgingStats.gov (Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics)
This site features a biennial report called Older Americans: Key Indicators of Well-Being. It covers key indicators selected to portray aspects of the lives of older Americans and their families. There are five subject areas: population, economics, health status, health risks and behaviors, environment, special feature, figures, and health care. Key indicators are also available in Excel spreadsheet format. Reports are available back to 2000. Resources page provides links to the web sites of ongoing, federally sponsored surveys relevant to the aging.

AIDS Data Animation Project (CIESIN)
Using mortality data from the National Centers for Health Statistics, the AIDS Data Animation Project has created a web site which provides still frame and animated maps of regional United States AIDS mortality trends. The maps depict weekly AIDS mortality rates from 1981-1992. Documentation is available at the site as well. The still frame images are in GIF format; the animated maps require an MPEG viewer and may be quite slow to appear. File sizes are listed for each mapping.

Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) (Alan Guttmacher Institute)
The Guttmacher Institute is a research and policy organization. It produces a wide range of resources on topics pertaining to sexual and reproductive health and rights in the United States and globally.

Archive of Fertility and Health (Universidad de Costa Rica)
This site presents a compilation of surveys on fertility and health in Central America. The surveys contain information on the history of pregnancies, knowledge and use of contraceptives, marital information, maternal-infantile health, immunization, knowledge and use of the oral re-hydration, use of health services, and other related subjects. Recent surveys contain information on AIDS and child morbidity. The data files with their respective dictionaries are available for some of the surveys. For others, a form is available for ordering the data. Each data file has a data dictionary (extension .man), a file with the frequencies of each variable (extension .frq), and the data file itself in ASCII format (extension .dat). Text in English and Spanish.

Area Health Resource File (AHRF) (Quality Resource Systems, Inc.)
"The Area Health Resource File (AHRF) is a database containing over 6,000 variables for each county in the US. AHRF formerly known as Area Resource File (ARF) is used for health service research, health policy analysis, and other geographically based activities." The ARF data from 1940-1990, as well as the 1999, 2005 and 2009-2010 releases, are available at DISC for UW-Madison campus users. The ARF website provides a search engine to identify which variables are available in the most recent annual release.

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (Centers for Disease Control (CDC))
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) established the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) in 1984 to track behavioral health risk in the United States. All 50 states were covered by 1994, and BRFSS is now billed as the world's largest telephone survey. Behavior and risk categories include not getting enough physical activity, being overweight, not using seatbelts, using tobacco and alcohol, and not getting preventive care, among others. Annual survey data in ASCII and/or SAS format is available for download, back to 1984. Visitors can find local area health risk data through the SMART project (Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trends).

California Department of Health Care Services: Data & Statistics (California Department of Health Care Services)
The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) finances and administers a number of individual health care service delivery programs, including the California Medical Assistance Program (Medi-Cal). The Data & Statistics page links to data resources such as Indian Health Data and Medi-Cal Drug Utilization Data; results from the California Women's Health Survey; and County Health Statistics.

California Department of Public Health: Data & Statistics (California Department of Public Health: Center for Health Statistics and Informatics (CHSI))
The Center for Health Statistics and Informatics (CHSI) offers vital records data, statistical reports, information about the Medical Marijuana Program, End of Life Option Act, California county health status profiles, and much more. PDF and Excel file formats are available.

California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) (UCLA Center for Health Policy Research)
The California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) is the largest state health survey conducted in the United States. The initial survey was held in 2001, and plans are in place for continuing the survey every two years. An interactive data query system called AskCHIS is available, with a free registration required.

California Tobacco Surveys (University of California, San Diego)
Formerly part of the Tobacco Use Behavior Research Collections at UC-San Diego, the California Tobacco Surveys have become part of the UC-San Diego Dataverse. The California Tobacco Surveys go back to 1990, and are freely downloadable.

cancer.gov: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) (National Cancer Institute Institute of Health)
The SEER Program currently collects and publishes cancer incidence and survival data from 18 population-based cancer registries and three supplemental registries covering approximately 25 percent of the US population. Cancer mortality data, provided by the National Center for Health Statistics, is available for the entire US from 1950 onwards. SEER data includes patient demographics, primary tumor site, morphology, stage at diagnosis, first course of treatment, and follow-up. The site includes the Cancer Query System (CANQUES) as well as numerous reports, tables, and graphs based on the data in the SEER database. Direct access to the public use database requires the user to sign and submit a public-use agreement, outlined on the site.

Carolina Population Center (CPC) (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

The Carolina Population Center (CPC) is "a community of scholars and professionals collaborating on interdisciplinary research and methods that advance understanding of population issues." Research projects specialize in the following themes, both internationally and in the U.S.:

  • Family, Fertility, and Children
  • Population Diversity and Inequality
  • Social and Spatial Contexts of Demographic and Health Behavior
  • Economic, Demographic, and Health Transitions
  • Population and Environment
  • Health Behavior and Infectious Disease
  • Demography and Economics of Aging

CPC projects include the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey, the China Health and Nutrition Survey, the MEASURE Evaluation Project, the Nang Rong Projects, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Heatlh, and the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey.

CDC WONDER (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control)
CDC Wonder provides a gateway to a wide variety of reports and numeric public health data. Many of the links are to menu-based extraction systems that produce downloadable summary data tables. The gateway covers the following categories: chronic diseases, communicable diseases, environmental health, health practice and prevention, injury prevention, and occupational health. The site also has an A-to-Z topic index.

Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (CLHNS) (Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
The Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (CLHNS) is an ongoing study of a cohort of Filipino women who gave birth between May of 1983 and 1984. The CLHNS is conducted by the Carolina Population Center at UNC, the Nutrition Center of the Philippines, and the Office of Population Studies, University of San Carlos. According to the Cebu site, "the CLHNS was originally conceptualized as a study of infant feeding patterns, particularly the overall sequencing of feeding events (i.e., of both milk and non-milk items), the various factors affecting feeding decisions at each point in time, and how different feeding patterns affect the infant, mother, and household... to analyze how infant feeding decisions by the household interact with various social, economic, and environmental factors to affect health, nutritional, demographic, and economic outcomes. During the period of project design from 1981 to 1983, the focus was expanded so that more issues related to selected health, demographic, and nutritional outcomes could be addressed." Follow-up studies were conducted in 1991, 1994, 1998, and 2002. The data and documentation are freely available online, together with a "descriptive statistics" tool that allows users to view means, frequencies, and two-way crosstabulations for the 1991 and 1994 data.

Center for Demography of Health and Aging (CDHA) (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
The Center for Demography of Health and Aging (CDHA) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is one of eleven demography of aging centers funded by the National Institute on Aging (P30 AG017266). Through the integration of research, training, and teaching, CDHA aims to increase the understanding of behavioral processes related to health and aging. Research focuses on five major themes: aging and the life course; biodemography; determinants of disparities of aging trajectories; health economics and health services research; and impacts of place on aging processes.

Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) (Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC))
The Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) is a non-partisan policy research organization in Washington, DC. The group chronicles trends in the U.S. health care system, primarily through the Community Tracking Survey (CTS), a national survey that focuses on the community level. The study consists of biennial visits to 12 communities and periodic national surveys of those involved in or affected by changes in the health system -- households, physicians and employers -- back to 1996/97. Data files are available at ICPSR. Please refer to: Using the HSC Data Files for more information.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Research, Statistics, Data & Systems (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS))
Research, Statistics, Data & Systems section of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) site provides access to public use data files regarding Medicare and Medicaid, as well as tables, reports and chartbooks. Its CMS Data Navigator is a menu-driven search tool to find data and information products for specific CMS programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, or on specific health care topics or settings-of-care. Navigator can display search results by data type e.g., data files, publications, statistical reports, etc.

Child Trends Databank (Child Trends)
The Child Trends DataBank is an online resource for indicators of child and family well-being and associated measures. It includes population-based measures like health, mental health, health-related behaviors, violence, drug and tobacco usage, and more. This site provides mainly statistics and tabulated data, but also includes links to the data sources of their research analyses.

China Health and Nutrition Survey (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carolina Population Center)
According to the web site, "The China Health and Nutrition Survey was designed to examine the effects of the health, nutrition, and family planning policies and programs implemented by national and local governments and to see how the social and economic transformation of Chinese society is affecting the health and nutritional status of its population." Data is available for five survey years: 1989, 1991, 1993, 1997 and 2000. Data files for household-level and individual-level data are available for direct download from the web. Community-level data is also collected, but potential users must abide by data confidentiality terms and submit an agreement to that effect before a CD-ROM containing the data will be sent via the postal service.

Compendium of Publicly Available Datasets and Other Data-Related Resources (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, National Partnership for Action (NPA) to End Health Disparities)
This report is a free resource containing descriptions of 132 public datasets and resources that include information about health conditions and other factors that impact the health of minority populations. It can aid researchers, public health practitioners, and policymakers to utilize data to examine health and health care disparities and social determinants of health.

Comprehensive Epidemiologic Data Resource (CEDR) (U.S. Department of Energy)
The Comprehensive Epidemiologic Data Resource (CEDR) is a "public-use repository of data from occupational and environmental health studies of workers at DOE facilities and nearby community residents. DOE is the federal agency responsible for the development, testing, and production of nuclear weapons. Because this work involves exposures to ionizing radiation and other potentially hazardous materials, DOE established an epidemiologic program in the 1960's to monitor the health of its workforce. Later, an environmental dose reconstruction program was initiated to study the potential health risks due to releases that traveled off-site to communities near DOE facilities." The site includes multiple datasets related to radiation and health. Users must be authorized to view data from the site. Click on sign up on the menu bar to become an authorized CEDR user.

County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Population Health Institute, University of Wisconsin)
The County Health Rankings site uses data from a variety of sources to create country rankings based on four types of health factors: health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic, and physical environment factors. "This web site provides access to the 50 state reports, ranking each county within the 50 states according to its health outcomes and the multiple health factors that determine a county's health. Each county receives a summary rank for its health outcomes and health factors and also for the four different types of health factors: health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors, and the physical environment. Each county can also drill down to see specific county-level data (as well as state benchmarks) for the measures upon which the rankings are based."

Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health (Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative, Oregon Health & Science University)

The Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health focuses on two surveys: the National Survey of Children's Health (2007, 2003) and the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (2005/06, 2001). The query system enables users to drill down to specific indicators in each survey, presenting a table and graph that can then be modified to compare states or subgroups. State profiles are another way to approach the indicators; each profile displays a table of pre-selected indicators which can then be clicked to view results pages like the ones from the query system. Within the National Survey of Children's Health, users can also create custom profiles with access to a larger set of indicators.

Users can save queries (free registration required) or e-mail them, though no option for exporting the actual tables is readily apparent. The datasets themselves cannot be downloaded directly from the site either, though instructions for acquiring the data are provided and many users - including academic researchers - can get the data for free. The site does include downloadable SAS and SPSS codebooks.

data.census.gov (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
The U.S. Census Bureau has a new platform for visitors to access its data and digital content. Surveys and programs on the new platform include 2017 Economic Census and 2018 American Community Survey. American FactFinder and DataFerrett will be replaced by this new platform. Starting in June 2019, American FactFinder will have no new data releases. On the new platform, visitors can type in words or phrases in one simple search box or use advanced search by topics, geographies, years, surveys, and industries. Data can be downloaded in CSV format. OnTheMap, MyCongressional District, and many other tools will continue to be available to Census data users. Check out Data Gems for experts' tips and How-to documents about this new microdata analysis system.

DATA2010: The Healthy People 2010 Database (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
This interactive database was created in support of the CDC's Healthy People 2010 program, which comprises a list of 467 health objectives for the U.S. population by the year 2010. Each objective contains a measure with a baseline and a specific target. The DATA2010 database incorporates data that corresponds to the objectives, from various sources including several federal government departments. Data can be sorted by focus areas, objectives, or demographic categories.

Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) (U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID))

The MEASURE DHS program facilitiates the Demographic and Health Survey, the Service Provision Assessment (SPA) Survey, and the HIV/AIDS Indicator Survey (AIS). The resulting datasets, which focus on Central and South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, are available for direct downloading. Datasets include information on family planning, maternal and child health, child survival, AIDS, educational attainment, and household composition and characteristics. Online data tools include:

  • the STATcompiler tool for quick facts and country comparisons, allowing users to build customized tables from DHS surveys and indicators.
  • the HIV/AIDS Survey Indicators Database, for creating HIV/AIDS data tables from a variety of sources.
  • the STATmapper tool for creating maps from DHS data in more than 75 countries.

Documentation and SPSS/PC and SAS data dictionaries are also available. Users must register and receive a password to download datasets.

Harmonized DHS data is available at IPUMS Global Health.

Diversitydatakids.org (Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University)
Diversitydatakids.org is designed as an information system to monitor the state of wellbeing, diversity, opportunity and equity for U.S. children. Visitors can view and assess important differences across seven geographic levels (depending on data availability): the neighborhood, county, city, school district, metropolitan area, state and national levels. All of their data and analyses are presented by race/ethnicity, and when possible, also by socioeconomic status and immigrant status. It monitors child outcomes as well as key factors (including opportunities, conditions, and resources) that drive child outcomes.

Epidemiology-France Metadata Portal (French Public Health Institute and AVIESAN, the French National Alliance for Life Sciences and Health)
Epidemiology-France Metadata Portal is designed and run by the French Public Health Institute (ITMO SP) within AVIESAN. It is a catalogue of more than 900 health databases in France. It provides information about epidemiology research, data sharing and common usable databases for research and public health assessment. The portal has a powerful search tool that allows visitors to explore the hundreds of databases by descriptors and database types and medical fields.

European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) (European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs)
The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) is the largest cross-national research project on adolescent substance use in the world. It aims to collect comparable data on substance use among 15-16 year old students in European countries. Its data collections are performed every four years. The first ESPAD survey was conducted in 1995. Reports and citations of publications are available on the site. Researchers can fill out an online application, epid-prod.ifc.cnr.it/ESPAD-Appl/ to obtain a copy of a database.

Feeding America: Hunger Studies (Feeding America)
Feeding America is the largest charitable hunger relief organization in the United States, providing direct assistance as well as hunger-related research and policy efforts. The Hunger Studies page provides access to the following reports containing statistics on hunger in the United States: Hunger Study; Child Food Insecurity; and Emergency Food Assistance. The site also contains an online mapping/visualization project called "Map the Meal Gap" that highlights food insecurity rates by state and county within the United States.

Firearm-safety Among Children & Teens Consortium (FACTS) (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR))
The Firearm Safety Among Children and Teens (FACTS) Consortium is funded by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. It is designed to develop research resources for firearm injury prevention. Datasets, methodology, research projects, publications, and other resources are available from this site.

Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (Gallup and Healthways)

The polling firm Gallup and health-management firm Healthways have teamed up to produce the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Conceived as a 25-year initiative, the project is interviewing no fewer than 1,000 U.S. adults daily, 350 days a year, asking questions designed to reflect how Americans evaluate their health, their work, and their lives in general. The index aims to be "the official measure for health and well-being" for the United States.

Component indices include life evaluation, emotional health, physical health, healthy behaviors, work environment, and basic access. The site carries national graphs of the indices since January 2008, monthly reports, and daily snapshot findings. The site also links to a companion resource hosted by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) that creates annual reports based on Well-Being index data for each of the Congressional Districts in the U.S.

Gateway to Global Aging Data ( Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR), Program on Global Aging, Health & Policy, University of Southern California)
Gateway to Global Aging Data is a platform designed for harmonizing cross-national studies of aging to Health and Retirement Study (HRS). It includes Health and Retirement Study (HRS), Mexican Health and Ageing Study (MHAS), English Longitudinal Study on Ageing (ELSA), Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), Korean Longitudinal Study on Aging (KLoSA), Japanese Study on Aging and Retirement (JSTAR), Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS), China Health, Aging, and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE), and Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI). It has a digital library contains survey questions, sets of harmonized variables, and tools to search, compare, and obtain the information from various health and retirement surveys from over 25 countries. Its Interactive Graphs and Tables page can produce population estimates in a graph or table format as well as data visualization on a map of the globe.

GenderStats (World Bank)
GenderStats is an interactive database of gender statistics, developed by the World Bank's Gender and Development. GenderStats offers country data sheets showing summary gender indicators, basic demographic data, population dynamics, labor force structure, and education and health statistics. Data sources for GenderStats include national statistics, United Nations databases, and World Bank-conducted or funded surveys. Results may be saved in Excel format.

Generations and Gender Contextual Database (GGP) (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe)
The Generations and Gender Programme (GGP) is a research infrastructure for Social Science. It provides micro- and macro-level data at the national and regional level to improve the knowledge base for social science and policymaking in Europe and developed countries elsewhere. GPP has these key features: cross-national comparability, a longitudinal design, a large sample size, a broad age range, a combination of micro and macro data and a theory-driven and multidisciplinary questionnaire. The GGP surveys and contextual database provide a wide variety of data for policy relevant research by demographers, economists, sociologists, social policy researchers, social psychologists and epidemiologists. Researchers need to register first before they access GGP data.

German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) (Deutsches Institut fuer Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW))
The GSOEP is a longitudinal study of private households across Germany, ongoing since 1984. Some of the many topics include household composition, occupational biographies, employment, earnings, health and satisfaction indicators. The GSOEP web site carries information about the study, including the questionnaires and a web interface to the data (SOEPinfo) that allows for frequency queries and item correspondence. Also available is contact information for obtaining the data directly from GSOEP. [NOTE: DISC has 1984-2002 available on CD-ROM in the library, Study #CA-511-001; more current data releases are available for purchase from GSOEP.]

Global Burden of Disease (GBD) data (The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME))
Global Burden of Disease (GBD) data captures premature death and disability from more than 300 diseases and injuries in 195 countries, by age and sex, from 1990 to the present, allowing comparisons over time, across age groups, and among populations. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) has built online data visualization tools to present recent GBD data using country profiles and US county profiles. Some GBD data can be downloaded from the Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx) site : http://ghdx.healthdata.org/.

Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition (World Health Organization (WHO))
Quoting from the database web site: "The Global Database is a standardized compilation of child growth and malnutrition data from nutritional surveys conducted around the world since 1960... The Global Database includes population-based surveys that fulfil a set of criteria. Data are checked for validity and consistency and raw datasets are analysed following a standard procedure to obtain comparable results. Prevalences below and above defined cut-off points for weight-for-age, height-for-age, weight-for-height and body mass index (BMI)-for-age, in preschool children are presented using z-scores based on the WHO Child Growth Standards." Reference tables are presented by country, as PDF documents; no query system is included.

Global Health Policy (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Global Health Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation works on providing the latest data and information on the U.S. role in global health. Visitors can find fact sheets and reports in many issues related to global health and HIV policy. The StateHealthFacts site offers current health data for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. State Health Facts offers over 800 health indicators. Users can map, rank, trend, and download state health data for free.

Google Public Data Explorer (Google Labs)
Google Public Data Explorer is an online data visualization tool that allows users to explore publicly-available data within the site's collections, and design their own graphs and tables for display. Displays can be animated to show changes over time, and users can link or embed the visualizations in their own web pages. The initial collection includes selected data from the World Bank, OECD, Eurostat and several statistical agencies in the United States. While the collection is growing, it is not comprehensive. The data itself cannot be downloaded directly from Google, but links are provided to the source websites.

HCUPnet (U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research)
HCUPnet is part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, developed and maintained by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The HCUPnet interface provides access to national (U.S.) statistics about hospital stays, using data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), the Kids' Inpatient Database (KID), and the State Inpatient Databases (SID) for states that participate. Users can generate custom tables by selecting specific conditions of interest, outcomes or measures such as length of stay or in-hospital death, and types of patients or hospitals to compare. The resulting tables can be displayed in printable versions or saved in Excel (xls) format.

Health and Health Behaviour (UK Data Service)
The majority of datasets at this site are primary and can be used for secondary analysis. Users need to register before they can access any study. There are online tools for data analysis.

Health and Medical Care Archive (HCMA) (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
The Health and Medical Care Archive (HCMA) at ICPSR preserves and disseminates data from projects funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The data collections in HMCA primarily includes large-scale surveys of the American public about public health, attitudes towards health reform, and access to medical care; surveys of health care professionals and organizations, public health professionals, and nurses; evaluations of innovative programs for the delivery of health care, and many other topics and populations of interest. Online analysis of some studies and a bibliography of publications based on research data are available. HMCA is the data archive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). RWJF grantees can contact HMCA for assistance in preparing their data collections for secondary analysis.

Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) (University of Michigan)
The web site for both Institute for Social Research (ISR), University of Michigan datasets. Both HRS and AHEAD are nationally representative longitudinal data collections begun in the early 1990s that examine retirement and the aging of society. Free registration is required to gain access to the data.

Health Data for All Ages (HDAA) (U.S. National Center for Health Statistics)
According to the HDAA site, "this site presents tables that provide CDC health statistics for infants, children, adolescents, adults, and older adults. You can customize tables with any or all of the following characteristics: age, gender, race/ethnicity, and geographic location." Using the Beyond 20/20 system, users can browse and manipulate tables online, or download the tables and software for additional features. Table topics include: Pregnancy and Birth; Health Conditions/Risk Factors; Health Status and Disability; Health Care Access and Use; and Mortality.

HealthStats (World Bank)
HealthStats is the World Bank’s portal to its comprehensive collection of Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) statistics. Topics include health financing and the health workforce; immunization and the incidence of HIV and AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, non-communicable diseases and the causes of death; nutrition, clean water and sanitation, and reproductive health; as well as population estimates and population projections. Users can access HNP data by country, wealth quintile, topic, or indicator. The resulting data are made available through tables, charts or maps.

HIV/AIDS Surveillance Database (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
The HIV/AIDS Surveillance Database was developed to compile information on the AIDS pandemic and on HIV infection in population groups in developing countries, from studies appearing in medical and scientific literature, presented at international conferences, and appearing in the press. The database is available in an interactive online version and data can be exported to .pdf or .csv formats.

Housing Topics (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
This page from the U.S. Census Bureau offers socio-economic statistics related to a variety of housing topics which include housing facts, survey data, homeownership data, housing affordability, housing vacancy data, housing patterns (residential segregation), and more. Data sources include the: American Community Survey, American Housing Survey, Decennial Census of Housing, Housing Vacancy Survey, Residential Finance Survey, and Survey of Market Absorption. Related websites for housing data are also included.

Human Fertility Database (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and Vienna Institute of Demography)
The Human Fertility Database covers 21 countries and includes detailed data on births, unconditional and conditional fertility rates, cohort and period fertility tables, total fertility rates, mean ages at childbearing, and parity progression ratios. Historical coverage for each country varies, and the project continues to add updates, with plans to add more countries in the future. The main page notes that at this point, the site contents are still considered preliminary and intended primarily for testing and evaluation. Access to the data requires free registration and acceptance of HFD's user agreement.

Human Mortality Database (Department of Demography at the University of California-Berkeley and The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research)
The Human Mortality Database is the sister of the Human Life Table Database. The Human Mortality Database is also an outgrowth of the Department of Demography at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. The Database measures mortality data by country, specifically industrialized countries such as the United States and much of Western Europe. Users can download data by country (free registration required).

ICD-10 Code Lookup Tool (Medical Billing and Coding Certification)
The ICD-10 (International Statistical Classification of Diseases - 10th Revision) is a medical classification list for the coding of diseases as maintained by the World Health Organization. The Medical Billing and Coding Certification site offers two options for looking up ICD-10 codes: a keyword search tool and a hierarchy browse. Both the searching and browsing tools offer a pop-up of US mortality data from the World Health Organization for each code. Note: The mortality-data pop-up works best with Firefox, Chrome, and the latest version of Internet Explorer.

Indiana Prevention Resource Center (Indiana University)
This site provides statistics about use and consequences of use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs (ATOD) among youth in Indiana. Indiana Prevention Resource Center (IPRC) presents findings from the Indiana Youth Survey (INYS) and the Indiana College Substance Use Survey (ICSUS) . Its County Epidemiological Data (previously called PREV-STAT) features indicators for demography, economy, health, and risk factors.

Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities (work-related) (U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Occupational safety and health statistics. As with other Bureau of Labor Statistics sites, users can download entire data files or interactively create custom tables.

Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) (Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota)

The IPUMS project makes census microdata available for the U.S. (1850 to present) and for an increasing number of international censuses. For each arm of the project (U.S., International, and Current Population Survey), samples are combined into a unified database, with uniform codes and integrated documentation. Users can create and download extracts online. One major asset of IPUMS International, the international arm of the project, is the inventory of known censuses and surviving microdata. Free registration and agreement to conditions of use are required for download.

The site also includes the following projects from the Minnesota Population Center:

  • American Time Use Survey (ATUS)
  • Global Health
  • Integrated Health Interview Series
  • Harmonized International Census Data
  • National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS)
  • North Atlantic Population Project
  • Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System
  • Terra Integrates Population and Environmental Data

International Shark Attack File (ISAF) (Florida Museum of Natural History and American Elasmobranch Society)
The International Shark Attack File site is the online face for an ongoing compilation of over 5000 shark attack investigations, from the mid-1500s to the present. Visitors will find maps, graphs, and HTML tables of shark attack numbers, along with articles putting shark attacks into perspective. The site also provides ordering information for publications and a database compiled of early case-histories from the ISAF.

IPUMS Global Health (Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota)
IPUMS Global Health includes integrated international health surveys data form Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA). DHS covers Africa and South Asian surveys from the 1980s to the present with variables on pregnancy termination, childrearing, women's work, marriage and sexuality, family planning, HIV, malaria, postpartum care, health care access, treatment of child fever/respiratory illness, and vaccinations. Integrated PMA surveys are administered frequently to monitor trends in select high-fertility countries in Africa and Asia. IPUMS PMA provides an interactive web dissemination system for PMA data with variable documentation on thousands of harmonized variables on family planning, water and sanitation, and health.

IPUMS Health Surveys (Minnesota Population Center (MPC) and State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), University of Minnesota)

The Integrated Health Interview Series (IHIS) is a selected harmonized set of data and documentation based on the public use files of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) from 1963 to the present. NHIS is an annual cross-sectional household interview survey of approximately 100,000 people in 40,000 households, designed to monitor the health of the United States population through the collection and analysis of data on a broad range of health topics. Along with socioeconomic and demographic variables, IHIS includes data on a wide range of physical and mental health conditions, health behaviors (including alcohol and tobacco use), health care use and access, and activity limitations for the non-institutionalized U.S. population (children and adults).

The IHIS project recodes the data to increase consistency over time and to aid in comparisons across time. The site features a data extraction system (free registration required) which allows users to select record type, years and variables to create custom subsets, that can then be downloaded to use for analysis. Since variable names are changed in the harmonizing process, the original public-use NHIS files contain different variable names than the IHIS variables. Extensive online documentation on NHIS variables and comparability issues is available at the site.

JamStats (Planning Institute of Jamaica)
JamStats is a database project with the tagline and goal of "Tracking Jamaica's Progress," specifically toward the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The database, which uses DevInfo software, can either be accessed online or downloaded from the JamStats site (over 10Mb in a zipped archive; the database and DevInfo software must be downloaded separately). As of July 2009, the online application allows users to select from three databases: EduStats 2008, JamStats 2008-9, and Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS) 2005 for Jamaica. Indicator groupings, aka Sectors, in the JamStats database include demography, economy, education, environment, gender equity, health, information & communication, and national security. Data appears most complete for the past decade, but occasional indicators have values as far back as 1960.

Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR) (Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) and Hitotsubashi University and the University of Tokyo)
The Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR), a panel survey of elderly people aged 50 or older in Japan, was launched in 2007 and data from the first wave of the study was released in 2010. JSTAR focuses on the economic, social, and health conditions of elderly people. The study is designed to be comparable to the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in the United States, Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA). The questionnaire, codebook, and a report on the first results can be downloaded from the site. The site also describes conditions, confidentiality levels, and application instructions for qualified researchers and agencies to receive the data free of charge. The JSTAR datasets are available in Stata and CSV formats.

Kaiser Family Foundation (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation is an independent philanthropic organization that focuses on health care policy and education. Their site includes sections on Entertainment and Media, HIV/AIDS, Medicaid and Medicare, Reproductive and Sexual Health, and Women's Health Policy. Research reports incorporating charts and tables are also available.

Kaiser Family Foundation Question Finder (Kaiser Family Foundation and Roper Center for Public Opinion Research)
The Kaiser Family Foundation Question Finder allows users to search for individual survey questions asked on all Kaiser Family Foundation polls since 1992. Search by keyword and/or date to find full question wording and results.

Kenya Open Data (Kenya ICT Board and World Bank)
The Kenya Open Data initiative went online in July 2011, the first national open data portal in sub-Saharan Africa. Operated by the Kenyan government in partnership with the World Bank, the site carries data at both the national and sub-national level. opendata.go.ke makes core government developmental, demographic, statistical and expenditure data available in a useful digital format for researchers, policymakers, ICT developers and the general public. As of May 2015, there were close to 500 datasets that had been uploaded to the site. Data can be freely downloaded, as well as displayed online in customizable maps, charts and tables.

Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) (Vrije Universiteit (Netherlands))
The Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) was founded in 1991 to examine predictors and consequences of aging. LASA focuses on physical, emotional, cognitive and social functioning in late life, the connections between these aspects, and the changes that occur in the course of time. One cohort began in 1992, with a second cohort in 2002; observation cycles take place every three years. The sample comes from three regions of the Netherlands, with initial participant ages ranging from 55 to 85. The site provides an extensive bibliography, information on research themes and variables, and links to related sites. A detailed research proposal is required to gain access to LASA data; more information is available on the site.

Madison Neighborhood Indicators Project (City of Madison, Wisconsin)
The Madison Neighborhood Indicators Project program, funded by the City of Madison (Wisconsin) and hosted by UW-Madison's Applied Population Lab, offers a single year of selected data indicators plus mapping capability, covering the city of Madison as a whole and 70 neighborhoods, also organized as 57 planning districts. Indicators for each neighborhood include a basic area & population profile, public safety indicators, health & well-being indicators, community action & involvement indicators, economic vitality indicators, and housing quality & availability indicators. Mapping and neighborhood-comparison tools are available on the site. Note that some indicators, particularly relating to health and family well-being, are suppressed at the neighborhood level due to privacy concerns. The project launched as a pilot in 2008 with 5 neighborhoods, and went city-wide in October 2009.

Managed Care Digest Data Portal (sanofi-aventis)
This site offers a "Data Portal" that allows users to create and download tables (in Powerpoint, Word & Excel) for topics of acute coronary syndromes, deep vein thrombosis, diabetes, hypertension, peripheral artery disease, stroke, HMOs and retail pharmacy. Annual figures are available for one or more years at either the national or regional level.

Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) (American Healthcare Research and Quality)
"The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, or MEPS as it is commonly called, is the third (and most recent) in a series of national probability surveys conducted by AHRQ (American Healthcare Research and Quality) on the financing and utilization of medical care in the United States." A number of public use files are available for download, and some data is also available in tabular format. Online statistical tools are available for analyzing household data and employer-based insurance data.

Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) (University of Texas Medical Branch)
The Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) is a panel study of health and aging in Mexico. The baseline survey was conducted in the Summer of 2001 with a follow-up survey in 2003. The third wave if MHAS was conducted in 2012 and its fourth wave was fielded in 2015. Data and documentation from these four rounds of MHAS surveys are available for download; free registration is required to access the public use data files. In English and Spanish.

MIDMAC - Midlife Research (MacArthur Foundation)
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development (MIDMAC) was established in 1989 to explore different aspects of the middle age life-span from a variety of different perspectives, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, and health care. The site contains information about the research studies; actual data is archived with ICPSR (search on MIDMAC or MIDUS).

Millennium Development Goals (The World Bank)
The World Bank has adopted the 8 goals set out by the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals initiative, and offers data on the progress toward those goals as part of its Data Bank.

Monitoring the Future Study (University of Michigan Survey Research Center)
Monitoring the Future is an ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes, and values of American secondary school students, college students, and young adults. This site includes access to publications, data tables and other information originating from these important surveys. The datasets themselves may be downloaded through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMDHA). Monitoring the Future is one of several studies available from the University of Michigan Survey Research Center.

Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) (United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF))
Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) is a household survey program designed to help over 100 developing countries to monitor the situation of women and children in their countries. MICS was a major source of data on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) indicators. Users need to register on this site before they can access MICS datasets.

National Archive for Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) (National Institute on Aging (NIA) and Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR))
The National Archive for Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) acquires and preserves data relevant to aging and gerontology research, partnering with ICPSR to archive and distribute the data. The NACDA web site at ICPSR provides searchable access to publicly-available NACDA data (free registration required) and also to aging-related data from the main ICPSR catalog, in which cases the download is restricted to ICPSR member institutions. Some NACDA data is also available for online analysis through the SDA system, thus searchable at the variable level.

National Association of Health Data Organizations (NAHDO) (National Association of Health Data Organizations)
According to its mission statement, "The National Association of Health Data Organizations (NAHDO) is a national, not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to improving health care through the collection, analysis, dissemination, public availability, and use of health data."

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is the primary source of vital and health statistics for the United States. NCHS data systems include data on vital events as well as information on health status, lifestyle and exposure to unhealthy influences, the onset and diagnosis of illness and disability, and the use of health care. Some of the NCHS data systems and surveys are ongoing annual systems while others are conducted periodically. NCHS has two major types of data systems: systems based on populations, containing data collected through personal interviews or examinations; and systems based on records, containing data collected from vital and medical records. Data include: National Health Interview Survey, National Immunization Survey, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, National Survey of Family Growth, National Health Care Survey , National Employer Health Insurance Survey, National Vital Statistics System, and Mortality Data. Research activities include: Aging, AIDS, Classification of Diseases, Data on America's Children, Evaluation of Certificates, Healthy People 2000, International Activities, Minority Health, National Death Index, Nutrition Monitoring, and Public Health Conference on Records and Statistics.

Data Warehouse
FASTATS - an alphabetized subject list with links to NCHS reports and tables, as well as other statistical sources
Health Statistics via FTP

National Children's Study (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
"The National Children's Study will examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of more than 100,000 children across the United States, following them from before birth until age 21." The idea of "environmental" influences is broadly defined and includes biological and chemical factors, physical surroundings, social factors, behavioral influences and outcomes, genetics, cultural and family influences and differences, and geographic location. The NCS Pilot Study began in 2009, testing methods and procedures planned for use in a larger Main Study. When recruitment ended in July 2013, the Vanguard Study had enrolled approximately 5,000 children in 40 locations across the country. Due to budget constraints in the following years, the NCS ended in 2014. However, researchers can register to access the NCS Vanguard (Pilot) Study from this site.

National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) Catalog of Surveillance Systems ( National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR))
The National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) Catalogue of Surveillance Systems has 100 publicly available datasets with information on health behaviors, outcomes, determinants, policies and environmental factors. This free online resource was created for researchers and practitioners to investigate childhood obesity in America.

National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) (Cornell University)
The NDACAN web site provides descriptions and ordering information for several dozen datasets relevant to the study of child abuse and neglect. Documentation may be downloaded for free in PDF; datasets may be ordered in SPSS or SAS format for a fee.

National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) Online (U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission)
The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) is a national probability sample of hospitals in the U.S. and its territories. Patient information is collected from each NEISS hospital for every emergency visit involving an injury associated with consumer products. From this sample, the total number of product-related injuries treated in hospital emergency rooms nationwide can be estimated. This web access to NEISS allows certain estimates to be retrieved online.

National Health and Aging Trends Survey (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)
The National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) was designed to follow nationally representative cohorts of persons ages 65 and older and enrolled in Medicare. Round 1 of the study was fielded in 2011. The design includes oversamples of individuals at older ages and Blacks. It succeeded the National Long Term Care Survey (NLTCS) to support research on disability trends and trajectories in later life. NHATS examines how the daily lives of older adults change as they age. It supports investigations on how individuals adapt to changes in physical, cognitive, and sensory capacity and the consequences of disablement for wellbeing. The National Study of Caregiving (NSOC) is a nationally representative study of family and other unpaid caregivers to older persons living with limitations in daily activities. Together NHATS and NSOC are the only national study that provide both care recipient and care giver perspectives on late-life care. NHATS public use data can be downloaded by registered users.

National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (J. Richard Udry)
Add Health is a school-based study of the health-related behaviors of adolescents in grades 7-12. It has been designed to explore the causes of these behaviors, with an emphasis on the influence of social context. While this site provides useful information about the design of the new study, it does not allow downloading of data. Public release datasets are distributed at a price by Sociometrics Corp. as they become available, and are also available for download through ICPSR. DISC has the public use data Waves 1-2 and 3, 1994-1996 and 2001-2002, in our collection. Information about restricted-use Add Health data is also available on the Add Health site.

National Neighborhood Indicators Project (NNIP) (Urban Institute)

The National Neighborhood Indicators Project (NNIP) is a collaborative effort by the Urban Institute and local partners to further the development and use of neighborhood-level information systems in local policymaking and community building. With 35 partners as of November 2011, from Atlanta to Washington, the NNIP fosters local projects to gather and use local data to effect community change. Note that reports of partner activities are often in PDF. Access to actual data may take considerable drilling-down into partner web sites.

Visit DISC in person to use the Urban Institutes flagship data product, the Neighborhood Change Database (NCDB), to analyze decennial Census data at the tract level from 1970 through 2000.

National Practitioner Data Bank Public Use Files (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
The Health-Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 in the United States mandated the creation of the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), a clearinghouse for reporting on professional competence and conduct of physicians, dentists, and other health care practitioners. Information collected includes medical malpractice payments; adverse actions such as censures and revocations by licensing agencies, clinics and professional organizations; Medicare and Medicaid exclusions; and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency actions. The database came about to prevent health-care practitioners from escaping scrutiny in the wake of censures and malpractice by simply moving out of state. While the identifiable information in the NPDB can only be accessed by health-care entities and professional agencies, the site provides access to public-use statistical files for research purposes that can be freely downloaded in ASCII or SPSS. The public-use data goes back to 1990 and is updated quarterly.

NCI Cancer Atlas (National Cancer Institute)
This site from the National Cancer Institute provides interactive maps, graphs, text, tables and figures showing geographic patterns and time trends of cancer death rates for the time period 1970-2014 for more than 40 cancers in the United States. Geography is by state, State Economic Area (SEA) and county. Statistics regarding demographics, incidence, screening and risk factors, and prevalence of various cancers are also available. Data is downloadable in both text and Excel format.

New Beneficiary Data System (U.S. Social Security Administration)
The Social Security Administration's NBDS contains extensive information on the changing circumstances of aged and disabled beneficiaries. Based initially on a national cross-sectional survey of new beneficiaries in 1982, the original database has been expanded with information from administrative records and a second round of interviews in 1991. Variables measured in the original New Beneficiary Survey (NBS) include demographic characteristics; employment, marital and childbearing histories; household composition; health; income and assets; program knowledge; and information about the spouses of married respondents. Public use data and documentation may be downloaded from the site.

NHS Digital (National Health Service, U.K.)
NHS Digital is the national provider of information, data and IT systems for commissioners, analysts and clinicians in health and social care.

NIA Aging Cell Repository (Coriell Institute for Medical Research and The National Institute on Aging (NIA))
The NIA Aging Cell Repository is a resource that supports celluar and molecular research on aging, inlcuding the disease and degenerative processes associated with it. The repository is located at the Coriell Institute for Medical Research in Camden, New Jersey, and is sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). It contains collections of cells and DNA samples, from a variety of populations (both animal and human), that are gathered and maintained using strict protocols and standards for cell culture. Collections in this repository include cell cultures and DNA samples of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, premature aging disorders, Parkinson's disease, and siblings, as well as healthy animal and human cells that can be used as control groups in research. Age groups across the lifespan are included. A complete catalog of the various collections, as well as information on how to obtain samples, can be found at National Institute on Aging.

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Statistics (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)
This site provides a portal to free socio-economic statistics collected by the OECD. UW-Madison also subscribes to OECD iLibrary, OECD's premier fee-based product.

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) (Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization)
PAHO is the specialized health agency of the Inter-American System and also serves as Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization (WHO), the specialized health agency of the United Nations. From its Washington, D.C., headquarters, 27 country offices and three specialized centers in the region, PAHO promotes evidenced-based decision-making to improve and promote health as a driver of sustainable development.

Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) (National Science Foundation and National Institute on Aging and others)
The PSID is a longitudinal survey of a representative sample of US individuals and their families, ongoing since 1968. The data were collected each year through 1997, and every other year starting in 1999. Topics include income and wealth, expenses, education, and health care. A section on philanthropic giving and volunteering was added in 2001. A subsetting utility is available on the site, or data files may be downloaded in their entirety.

Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 (PMA2020) (Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020)
Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 (PMA2020) uses innovative mobile technology to support low-cost, rapid-turnaround surveys monitoring key health and development indicators. It collects a nationally representative sample of data from households and service delivery points in selected sentinel sites, to estimate health indicators on an annual basis. Topics include family planning, key water, sanitation and hygiene indicators, menstrual hygiene management, diarrheal disease, women and girls empowerment, and others. All PMA2020 datasets are free to download and use, although users are required to register for a PMA2020 dataset account. Harmonized PMA data series are available from IPUMS PMA.

Population Europe Resource Finder and Archive (PERFAR) (Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science)
The Population Europe Resource Finder and Archive (PERFAR) links policies, data, and research for users to explore population developments. It is designed to meet the information needs of researchers, policy makers, civil society organizations and journalists. It includes detailed information on policies over time, a link catalog to socio-economic and demographic data, and an online repository of research outcomes. It covers countries outside of Europe as well.

Puerto Rican Maternal and Infant Health Study (PRMIHS) (Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University)
The PRMIHS is a cross-sectional study designed to provide information on the determinants of poor infant health among Puerto Ricans. The PRMIHS entailed collection of personal interview data from 2,763 mothers of Puerto Rican infants sampled from the 1994 and 1995 birth and infant death records of six U.S. vital statistics reporting areas (Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York City, Pennsylvania) and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The survey collected information on: infant mortality; birth weight; maternal health habits during pregnancy (e.g., nutrition, smoking, alcohol and drug use); prenatal care; well-baby care; illnesses and accidents during infancy; infant development and behavior; migration experience; acculturation; marriage patterns; social support.

Quick Health Data Online (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office on Women's Health)
Quick Health Data Online (formerly known as National Women's Health Indicators Database) "provides state- and county-level data for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and US territories and possessions. Data are available by gender, race and ethnicity and come from a variety of national and state sources. The system is organized into eleven main categories, including demographics, mortality, natality, reproductive health, violence, prevention, disease and mental health. Within each main category, there are numerous subcategories." Results can be exported in CSV or PDF.

RAND Corporation Public Use Databases (The RAND Corporation)
The mission of the RAND Corporation, a non-partisan non-profit organization headquartered in California, is "to help improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis." As part of their research work on social and economic policy issues, RAND makes available a collection of public use databases at this site. The databases on the RAND site include: Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD); Displaced New Orleans Residents Survey (DNORS); Family Life Surveys; Health and Fertility Archive; Human Biospecimen Database; Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey; Worldwide Terrorism Incidents; and more.

Research Centers Collaborative Network of the the National Institute on Aging (Wake Forest School of Medicine and American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR))
The Research Centers Collaborative Network (RCCN) is designed to feature cross-disciplinary collaboration among six National Institute on Aging (NIA) Center programs: Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers, Centers on the Demography and Economics of Aging, Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers (OAICs), Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging, Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR), and Roybal Centers for Translational Research on Aging. These programs address important topics in aging but typically from a specific disciplinary perspective. The objective of RCCN is to initiate new cross-disciplinary networks and to align approaches across programs. Through collaborative networks these NIA programs will uncover synergies and insights that lead to novel collaborations.

Resource Center for Minority Data (RCMD) (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR))
The Resource Center for Minority Data (RCMD) is one of a growing number of special-purpose subsets within the vast data collections of the ICPSR. The focus of the RCMD is data for comparative analysis of issues affecting racial and ethnic minority populations in the United States. The subject coverage of the selected studies runs the gamut from education to housing to poverty to political participation. RCMD data falls into two general categories: studies that focus specifically on minority populations, such as the National Black Election Studies series; and studies with large enough sample sizes or ethnic/racial oversampling to permit meaningful analysis of issues that affect race and ethnic minority populations, such as the American Housing Survey series. While documentation is freely browsable, data download is available only to ICPSR member institutions, including UW-Madison.

Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
The Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) program provides state and county-level estimates of health insurance coverage status in the U.S. The program's estimates tend to be a couple of years in the making; for example, in March 2017, SAHIE released 2015 estimates. At the state level, the estimates are categorized by age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, and income categories, while at the county level, the categories are by age, sex, and income. The estimate models combine data from various sources, including the American Community Survey (ACS), the Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program, aggregated federal tax returns, participation records for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps), County Business Patterns, Census 2010, Medicaid, and Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) participation records.

Social Science Japan Data Archive (SSJDA) (Center for Social Research and Data Archives, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo)
The Social Science Japan Data Archive (SSJDA) is affiliated with the Center for Social Research and Data Archives in the Institute of Social Science (ISS) at the University of Tokyo. SSJDA collects, maintains, and provides access to social science data to researchers who are interested in Japanese quantitative data for secondary analyses. Users are required to fill out online applications and get approval before they can access datasets housed in SSJDA. Most of the datasets are in Japanese.

Sociometrics Corporation (Sociometrics Corp)
The Sociometrics Corporation is a commercial entity that provides data & documentation in six major areas: sexuality, health & adolescence; family; social research on aging; drug abuse; AIDS/STD; and disability. Studies can be searched or browsed; The datasets may be ordered for a fee, or may be available through other DISC subscriptions.

State Health Facts (Kaiser Family Foundation)
The State Health Facts site "is designed to provide free, up-to-date, and easy-to-use health data on all 50 states." Coverage falls into twelve subject areas:

  • Demographics and the economy
  • Health costs and budgets
  • Health coverage and uninsured
  • Health insurance and managed care
  • Health Reform
  • Health status
  • HIV/AIDS
  • Medicaid and CHIP
  • Medicare
  • Minority health
  • Providers and service use
  • Women's health
Each table provides the most current year's worth of data for all fifty states; no time-series data is included. Source descriptions and links are included. The site also provides single-state profiles and comparisons between states. Data download options are listed at the bottom of the page for each table. covers "state-level data on demographics, health, and health policy, including health coverage, access, financing, and state legislation." Sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, users may look at statistics in a number of categories, including "Demographics and the Economy," "Health Status," "Health Coverage and Uninsured," and many others.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA) (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)
SAMHDA is a collection of substance abuse and mental health studies with a national focus. It provides public-use data files, file documentation, and access to restricted-use data files to support a better understanding of this critical area of public health. The Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality (CBHSQ), has primary responsibility for the collection, analysis, and dissemination of SAMHSA's behavioral health data.

Survey of the Health of Urban Residents (SHUR) (Institute on Critical Race And Ethnic Studies, Lehigh University)
The Survey of the Health of Urban Residents (SHUR) was administered online to a nonprobability quota sample in 2018. It respondents consists of adults ages 18 and older living in urban areas across the contiguous United States. African American and Latinx populations were oversampled, as well as persons whose usual source of care was not a doctor's office. It includes measures of stressors such as a range of negative encounters with the police and relational aspects of health care delivery, such as respondents' perceptions of respect during their clinical encounter. Data are available to researchers after they complete a data request form.

The ACCRA Cost of Living Index (The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER))
The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) has collected and published cost of living index data since 1968. Data are organized into these categories: food, housing, utilities, transportation, health care, miscellaneous goods and services, and a composite index at the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) level and at the county level. They are released quarterly. Learn more about ACCRA Cost of Living Indices methodology. Its products are fee-based.

The Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx) (The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME))
The Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx) is created and supported by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), an independent global health research center at the University of Washington. The GHDx is a comprehensive catalog and repository of health and demographic datasets from different places and providers for health research. Its sources include surveys, censuses, vital statistics, and administrative records. Visitors can browse GHDx by data types, keywords, organizations, countries, and series and systems. Standardized citations are provided to encourage appropriate acknowledgment of data owners& contributions.

The Human Life-Table Database (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and Department of Demography at the University of California-Berkeley, Institut national d'etudes demographiques)
The Human Life-Table Database (HLD), compiled by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, the Department of Demography at the University of California-Berkeley, and the Institut national d'etudes demographiques (INED) in Paris, provides population life information for a variety of countries. Life tables describe the extent to which a generation of people (i.e. life table cohort) dies off with age. This database is a collection of population life tables covering a multitude of countries and many years. Most of the HLD life tables are life tables for national populations, which have been officially published by national statistical offices. Some of the HLD life tables refer to certain regional or ethnic sub-populations within countries. Parts of the HLD life tables are non-official life tables produced by researchers.

The International Data & Economic Analysis (IDEA) at USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID))
The International Data & Economic Analysis (IDEA) is USAID's source of economic and social data and analysis. The IDEA has over 12,000 data series from over 125 sources. The data are broken down by countries, years and the following sectors: Economy, Country Ratings and Rankings, Trade, Development Assistance, Education, Health, Population, and Natural Resources. Visitors can query the International Data & Economic Analysis (IDEA) by countries, series and periods. Results can be downloaded in csv format.

The Neighborhood Atlas (Amy J.H. Kind)
This online interactive tool allows visitors to rank and map neighborhoods according to socioeconomic disadvantage metrics. Researchers can download data and merged them with other data sources to examine how neighborhood disadvantage impacts health. Neighborhood Atlas updates and expands the Area Deprivation Index (ADI), a measure created by the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) to the Zip+4 zip codes. It presents data on socio-economic factors including poverty, education, housing and employment indicators drawn from US Census data. The Neighborhood Atlas is free but requires visitors to register before they can download data.

The NetHealth Project (Center for Network Science and Data, University of Notre Dame)
The NetHealth Project is a longitudinal study of social networks and health. It surveyed a cohort of Notre Dame undergraduate students who entered Notre Dame in the Fall of 2015 and graduated in the Spring of 2019. It collected data on each participant's social networks, physical activity and sleep obtained from Fitbit devices, physical and mental health, social-psychological states, tastes and various self-reported behaviors, and demographics and background traits. Data (in Stata and csv) and PDF documents are available to researchers on the website.

The Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study (San Francisco Coordinating Center, University of California San Francisco and California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute)
MrOS, an NIH funded study began in 2000. 5,994 men from six clinical centers in the United States have been followed since enrollment till 2012 for incident fractures, falls, prostate cancers, and death. This study was designed to examine the extent to which fracture risk is related to bone mass, bone geometry, lifestyle, anthropometric and neuromuscular measures, and fall propensity. An extensive bank of data, images (x-rays, DXA scans, QCT scans, HRpQCT scans) and specimens are avaialbe from MrOS Online. Researchers need to register before they can access the data.

TransMONEE: Database of Socio-Economic Indicators for CEE/CIS Countries (United Nations Children's Fund and Innocenti Research Center)
TransMONEE contains over 150 economic and social indicators divided into ten different topics (population, natality, child and maternal mortality, life expectancy and adult mortality, family formation, health, education, child protection, crime indicators, and economic indicators) for 27 transition countries in Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. Annual time series data is available as far back as 1989. The TransMONEE data and country profiles are both available in Excel format.

Trends in Health and Aging (U.S. National Center for Health Statistics)
This site presents a collection of tables on trends in the health of older Americans showing data by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin. Using the Beyond 20/20 system, users can browse and manipulate tables online, or download the tables and software for additional features, including mapping and statistical tests. Tables are categorized into 19 topics: Chronic Conditions, Functional Status and Disability, Health Care Expenditures, Health Care Utilization, Health Insurance, Immunization, Incontinence, Injury, Life Expectancy, Living Arrangements, Mental Health, Mortality, Oral Health, Perceived Health Status, Population (Nation and State), Risk Factors, Socio-Economic Status, Special Equipment Use, and Use and Cost of Prescription Medication.

U.N. Social Indicators (United Nations Statistics Division)
Most-recently-collected year's worth of basic figures for many countries, in HTML tables, in these categories: population, child-bearing, youth and elderly populations, education, human settlements, literacy, water supply and sanitation, income and economic activity, housing, and unemployment.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) (U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Highlights from the USDA site include:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

U.S. Renal Data System (U.S. Health Care Financing Administration)
The USRDS is a national data system that collects, analyzes, and distributes information about end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States. Since Medicare includes an entitlement for ESRD treatment, data collection on this condition is extensive. The site includes an Annual Data Report (ADR) in PDF, and reference tables in PDF or text format. Instructions for contacting the USRDS with specific data requests are included as well.

U.S. Transgender Population Health Survey (TransPop) (TransPop)
Transgender individuals suffer increased risk for adverse health outcomes and risk behavior compared with the general U.S. population. TransPop's respondents are from a nationally representative sample of transgender individuals. It assesses health disparities by comparing this sample with a sample of cisgender adults and examines minority stress pathways to health disparities at the same time. Another study, Project AFFIRM is a multi-site study taking place in New York, San Francisco, and Atlanta. It is designed to observe the identity development and health of people who identify as transgender, gender non-conforming, or non-binary across the course of the lifespan. U.S. Trans Survey (USTS) with almost 28,000 respondents is the largest survey of transgender people in the country. It is the follow up to the 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey. The USTS is conducted every 5 years to learn about how transgender people's experiences change over time and what needs to be done to improve their lives. Visit https://www.ustranssurvey.org/ to learn more about this study.

UNdata (United Nations)
The United Nations is undertaking to bring together many of its various statistical databases under a single interface, at UNdata. UNdata carries 34 databases containing over 60 million records, covering a range of topics including population, industry, energy, trade and national accounts. The databases are accessible either by keyword searching from a single search page, or through a menu of databases. UNdata replaces the UN Common Database, which was discontinued after the December 2007 edition. However, the trade information in Undata does not replace UN COMTRADE, which continues to cover a deeper and more fully-featured set of merchandise statistics.

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) (United Nations Children's Fund)
This is the official home page for UNICEF. There is a wealth of information available, as well as statistical data broken down by country, in addition to various world maps for selected indicators. Statistics may be accessed under the "Information Resources" link.

Wisconsin Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES) (Center for Health Systems Research and Analysis (CHSRA), University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Wisconsin is one of 20 states that links hospital discharge data with vehicle crash data from the Department of Transportation, providing information on the types of injury and costs associated with various kinds of crashes. The Wisconsin CODES site carries tables, some in HTML and some in PDF, such as statewide crash-level and injury outcome reports back to 1996. DISC has the public-use data files containing annual data for Wisconsin, 1992-2002. Please see DISC staff for access to the public-use files, which are available under certain conditions and restrictions.

Wisconsin Health Statistics (Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS))
This site provides links to statistics on various aspects of health information in Wisconsin. Topical links include cancer, health care providers, health insurance status, Behavioral Risk Factor survey, Family Health survey, local data, minority health, oral health, vital statistics, and more.

WISQARS (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System) (Centers for Disease Control)
WISQARS (pronounced "whiskers") is a project of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, designed to allow custom queries for injury-relateddata. WISQARS combines mortality data gathered by the National Center for Health Statistics and population data from the Census Bureau, beginning in 1981. The site has two sections: WISQARS Fatal, for injury mortality data; and WISQARS Nonfatal, for national estimates of non-fatal injuries. Reports can be produced by year, age, race, sex, Hispanic origin, and state.

WomanStats (The WomanStats Project)
WomanStats is a comprehensive database on the situation and status of women in the world. It covers issues such as rape, sex trafficking, maternal and child mortality, family law, women in government and the military, and many others for countries with populations greater than 200,000 persons. It includes quantitative data, qualitative information, current legal statutes, and scales created by the WomanStats researchers for cross-national comparison. Over 350 variables are organized by nine categories:

  • Women's Physical Security
  • Women's Economic Security
  • Women's Legal Security
  • Women's Security in the Community
  • Women's Security in the Family
  • Security for Maternity
  • Women's Security Through Voice
  • Security Through Societal Investment in Women
  • Women's Security in the State
To download data, you need to register with the site.

World Bank Data (World Bank)
The World Bank launched its World Bank Data site in April 2010, an open-data initiative freely offering indicators and statistics about development that previously were accessible only by subscription. The Data Catalog on the site includes World Development Indicators (UW-Madison previously subscribed), Global Development Finance, Africa Development Indicators, Millennium Development Indicators, and more. The products grouped together in the searchable "Databank" comprise over 2000 indicators, some of which go back as far as 50 years; products from the Databank and others as well can be downloaded in Excel or CSV formats.

World Health Organization (WHO) (World Health Organization and United Nations)
WHO is a specialized agency of the United Nations whose function is to give worldwide guidance and set global standards for health, cooperating with governments in strengthening national health programs. See the "Data and Statistics" area of the site for links to international statistical information, including: the Global Burden of Disease project; mortality and health status statistics; statistics by disease or condition; immunization; and risk factors such as alcohol, obesity, and tobacco.

World Health Organization Statistical Information System (WHOSIS) (World Health Organization)
Provides searching and browsing options for finding international health-related statistics on the WHO web site and beyond. Online databases accessible from the WHOSIS page include Core Health Indicators; Life Tables; Mortality; Tuberculosis; HIV/AIDS; Alcohol; and Global Health Atlas. The WHO data offerings are more extensive than is immediately apparent. Users may want to use the site-search function on the WHOSIS page. The site also offers what they call a WHOSIS query service, consisting of a Frequently Asked Questions document and a contact form to send a question to WHO staff.

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