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General Indicators
World Development Indicators Online
GREAT SOURCE! World Development Indicators (WDI) is the World Bank's annual compilation of data/statistics about development; provides direct access to more than 550 development (economic and social) indicators for 208 countries from 1960 to 2001. Online format allows you to select the countries, indicators, and years in which you are interested and create customized tables.
UNESCO Data Centre
Provides access to a variety of key indicators and and raw data on education, literacy, and science and technology. The Global Rankings page is a good place to get a quick overview of an indicator across a region and the country profiles will provide more detailed information for an indicator.
US Census Bureau
Vital stats and context/socioeconomic data; not really health data. Data collected every 10 yrs; non-census years its often hard to get more detailed info. Most online data is from the 1990 and 2000 censuses, but there is some historical data (back to 1940s?) in some areas. Information can be viewed at the state level.
Statistical Abstract of the United States
For older demographic/socioeconomic data broken down by state. Note: The U.S. Census Bureau terminated the collection of data for the Statistical Compendia program effective October 1, 2011.
International Health Data
- Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)The ICPSR is one of the largest archives of quantitative data in the world, including more than 500,000 research files. Its holdings cover a myriad of topics and include many health-themed data collections.
- Health, Nutrition, and Population Statistics (HNPStats)A World Bank site with much international/comparative time-series data on health indicators, as well as on various economic and demographic/population measures. Bulk downloads of HNPStats data are available at http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/health-nutrition-and-population-statistics.
- Human Mortality Database (HMD)Contains data tables with age and gender breakdowns for mortality and life expectancy in many countries (requires free registration; data largely from the OECD). The site also provides links to related external sites.
- National Addiction & HIV Data Archive Program (NAHDAP)NAHDAP acquires, preserves and disseminates data relevant to drug addiction and HIV research (hosted by ICPSR).
- Social Science Electronic Data Library (SSEDL)An archive of over 300 data sets covering a variety of topic areas such as Adolescent Pregnancy, Aging, AIDS/STD's, the American Family, Disability in the US, and Maternal Drug Abuse. The archive is well-indexed and allows variable-level searches.
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA)Provides "ready access to substance abuse and mental health research data." The archive contains data for survey series such as the National Survey on Drug Use and Health and Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of the Lifestyles And Values Of Youth.
- UNDP Human Development ReportsReports from the UN Development Programme.
- USAID Demographic and Health SurveysAccurate and representative data on population, health, HIV, and nutrition through more than 300 surveys in over 90 countries.
- World Health Organization Mortality DatabaseThe WHO's Mortality Database provides aggregated mortality counts and cause-of-death statistics and (very large) raw data files for more advanced analysis.
- WHO's Global Health ObservatoryWHO portal providing access to data and analyses for monitoring the global health situation -- links to all kinds of data and statistics from countries around the world.
- World Health ReportPublished annually by WHO. Each year has a different focus (e.g. 2001 on mental health)
US Statistics
CDC The website for the CDC includes a section devoted to data and statistics at both the national and state levels. The CDC's A-Z topic index is also useful for locating quantitative information on particular topics. A variety of information is available on the site, but sometimes you have to dig and data is often accessible via links that might not sound as if they are directly related to your topic.
CDC Wonder is a portal to numerous studies concerning health-related topics such as AIDS/STDs, risk behaviors (the Behavioral Risk Surveillance System), mortality and natality statistics.
NCHS (National Center for Health Statistics, a part of the CDC) The three links below are some of the more useful links on the NCHS site:
- FASTSTATS A to Z (stats by subject and by state)
- Surveys and Data Collection Systems (ongoing/periodic surveys etc. collected by NCHS)
- NHIS Survey (National Health Interview Survey) is the principal source of information on the health of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States and is one of the major data collection programs of the NCHS.
National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) is an on-going survey series focusing on matters of family history and reproductive history (e.g. marital history, childbirth, usage of contraceptives) as well as more general matters such as employment history and demographics. The latest wave of the NSFG is also available on CD-ROM in the Data Center. Older waves are also available via the Social Science Electronic Data Library and in harmonized form via the Integrated Fertility Survey Series.
Georgia Division of Public Health is an excellent source for public health data as it relates specifically to the state of Georgia.