Public health data – from basic disease statistics to large datasets of de-identified data – are a vital resource to researchers, clinicians, and even patients. However, these resources are not found in a single place but are spread out over a wide variety of government, international, and non-profit organizations.
Here’s where to locate and get access to some of the most useful health data.
General Demographic Statistics:
- US Census Bureau QuickFacts
- QuickFacts provides statistics for all states and counties, and for cities and towns with a population of 5,000 or more.
- Population Reference Bureau (PRB) Data
- Provides U.S. and international indicators as well as world population data
General Health Statistics:
- National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
- Primary US government health statistics website, compiles data from a variety of government resources
- FastStats provides quick access to statistics on topics of public health importance
- Population surveys such as the National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES)
- Certain restricted data (requires a proposal of why it is needed)
- Primary US government health statistics website, compiles data from a variety of government resources
- CDC Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER)
- CDC WONDER is the access point for the CDC’s public data in an easy-to-use online query system
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)Research & Statistics
- CMS Data Navigator provides a easy-to-use web interface to search for CMS statistics
- Medicare Claims Public Use Files (PUFs) provides the raw de-identified Medicare claim data, from inpatient, outpatient procedures, prescriptions, and more
- WHO Global Health Observatory (GHO)
- Data repository for the World Health Organization’s health statistics for all 194 member states, includes over 1,000 indicators
Cancer Statistics:
- American Cancer Society Cancer Facts & Statistics
- Cancer Statistics 2020 (annual article from CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians)
- Cancer Statistics Center is an interactive tool using ACS’s data
- CDC’s Cancer FastStats
- National Cancer Institute’s SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results)
- SEER*Explorer is an interactive program to create individualized datasets using SEER data.
- Cancer Query Systems include data from SEER on incidence, mortality, survival, prevalence, and probability
- CDC United States Cancer Statistics
- IACR Global Cancer Observatory (GCO)
- Part of the International Agency for Cancer Research at the WHO
- The GCO is an interactive platform of cancer statistics from across the world
New York(City/State) Health Data:
- Health Data New York
- A subset of OpenNY that provides access to health data from across New York State
- NYC Health Data
- Community Health Profiles details health and other demographic information for all 59 community districts across NYC
- EpiQuery uses data from a variety of surveys that can be customized to a variety of demographics