Public Health Research Guide

For nearly three decades, America’s Health Rankings has provided an analysis of national health on a state-by-state basis by evaluating a historical and comprehensive set of health, environmental and socioeconomic data to determine national health benchmarks and state rankings.

online databases utilize a rich ad-hoc query system for the analysis of public health data. Reports and other query systems are also available.

QuickFacts provides statistics for all states and counties, and for cities and towns with a population of 5,000 or more.

The County Health Rankings are based on a model of community health that emphasizes the many factors that influence how long and how well we live. The Rankings use more than 30 measures that help communities understand how healthy their residents are today (health outcomes) and what will impact their health in the future (health factors). Explore the Model to learn more about these measures and how they fit together to provide a profile of community health.

Nationally representative surveys are designed to collect data on monitoring and impact evaluation indicators important for individual countries and for cross-country comparisons. Working with survey indicators requires a basic understanding of the types of information being collected and a basic understanding of statistics. The DHS Program is authorized to distribute, at no cost, unrestricted survey data files for legitimate academic research. Registration is required for access to data.

The FastStats site provides quick access to statistics on topics of public health importance and is organized alphabetically. Links are provided to publications that include the statistics presented, to sources of more data, and to related web pages.

Strategies and resources for finding data across the social sciences, including opinion surveys.

The Global Cancer Observatory (GCO) is an interactive web-based platform presenting global cancer statistics to inform cancer control and cancer research. The platform focuses on the visualization of cancer indicators to illustrate the changing scale, epidemiological profile, and impact of the disease worldwide, using data from several key projects of IARC’s Section of Cancer Surveillance (CSU), including GLOBOCAN; Cancer Incidence in Five Continents (CI5); International Incidence of Childhood Cancer (IICC); and Cancer Survival in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Central America (SurvCan).

Links to data on the health of a population.

This guide serves as a starting point for locating vital and health statistics. Print items listed with call numbers are located in the reference collection of the UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library unless otherwise indicated.

The Health Statistics Guide provides links to national as well as international health data on health care, diseases and statistical resources of interest to health professionals.

From Michigan State University

IPUMS provides census and survey data from around the world integrated across time and space. IPUMS integration and documentation makes it easy to study change, conduct comparative research, merge information across data types, and analyze individuals within family and community context. Data and services available free of charge.

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) compiles statistical information that is used in research by a broad audience including health professionals, policy makers, physicians, health providers, and researchers. This page gathers important sources of information found on the NCHS website of interest to students and librarians.

Population Reference Bureau works to improve the well-being of people everywhere by promoting informed decisions about population, health, and the environment. Data are at the core of much of PRB's work to provide rigorous information and distill relevant insights and evidence from it. Access featured indicators, U.S. and international data resources, and the World Population Data Sheet site here.

Provides information about all aspects of data management and stewardship including finding, planning, organizing, documenting, sharing, and preserving your research data.

KFF is a non-profit organization focusing on national health issues, as well as the U.S. role in global health policy. Unlike grant-making foundations, Kaiser develops and runs its own policy analysis, journalism and communications programs, sometimes in partnership with major news organizations.

UNdata is a web-based data service for the global user community. It brings international statistical databases within easy reach of users through a single-entry point. Users can search and download a variety of statistical resources compiled by the United Nations (UN) statistical system and other international agencies. The numerous databases or tables collectively known as "datamarts" contain over 60 million data points and cover a wide range of statistical themes including agriculture, crime, communication, development assistance, education, energy, environment, finance, gender, health, labour market, manufacturing, national accounts, population and migration, science and technology, tourism, transport and trade.

UNICEF has learned through experience that problems that go unmeasured often go unsolved. In collaboration with a wide range of partners, UNICEF gathers evidence on the situation of children and women around the world. It uses this knowledge to inform national and global decision-making with the objective of improving children’s well-being.

This page is a portal to the online data dissemination activities of the Division of Vital Statistics, including both interactive online data access tools and downloadable public use data files.

Free and open access to global development data

The Global Health Observatory theme pages provide data and analyses on global health priorities. Each theme page provides information on global situation and trends highlights, using core indicators, database views, major publications and links to relevant web pages on the theme.

This webinar provides a review of trends in statistical methods used in public health, resources for the effective use of public health data, and implications for training needs in the public health workforce.

An e-learning section for public health professionals containing modules at two different levels - practitioner and specialist. All of our Text based courses include a pre-course assessment and final exam. These are scored and the results emailed to your inbox. In order to access this functionality you will need to create an account or login.

This webinar will explore the health impacts of jails and prisons on individuals and communities.