Indicator Data Sources

Website:

https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/

Purpose:

To provide annual estimates of income, education, employment, health insurance coverage, and housing costs and conditions for residents of the United States.

Target Population:

The U.S. population, including the population living in group quarters.

Conducted:

Full implementation began in 2005. Conducted annually.

Data Source Limitations:

As with all self-reported sample surveys, American Community Survey data might be subject to systematic error resulting from noncoverage (e.g., residence in a noneligible household), nonresponse (e.g., refusal to participate in the survey or to answer specific questions), or measurement (e.g., social desirability or recall bias).

Sponsor:

Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce

Website:

https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/surveillance.htm

Purpose:

To provide findings based on alcoholic beverage sales data.

Target Population:

US population aged 14 years or older

How Often Collected:

Annual

Mode of Collection

Data compiled from state alcohol sales in the form of volume or tax revenue or beverage industry reports on alcohol sales. Population estimates from the US Census Bureau used to calculate per capita rates.

Notes:

None

Treatment of Missing Data

Not applicable.

Age-Standardization:

Not applicable.

Sponsor

National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Website:

https://no-smoke.org/materials-services/lists-maps/#1518200878061-ebc83fdc-2d6c

Purpose:

To provide a national repository of state and local tobacco-related ordinances and regulations in the United States.

Target Population:

US population

Periodicity:

Annual

Mode of Collection

Compilation of state and local tobacco-related laws on clean air, sales and distribution, youth access, advertising, excise taxes and conditional use permits.

Notes:

Data from ANRF sometimes differ from data from other smoke-free policy databases, such as the State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluation (STATE) System, because of variations in the definition of a comprehensive smoke-free policy.

Treatment of Missing Data

Not applicable.

Age-Standardization:

Not applicable.

Sponsor

American NonSmokers’ Rights Foundation

Website:

https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/index.html

Purpose:

To collect state-level information on health risk behaviors, preventive health practices, and health care access primarily related to chronic disease and injury.

Target Population:

US civilian, noninstitutionalized population aged 18 years or older residing in households

How OFten Collected:

Annual

Mode of Collection

Sample survey: telephone interview (cell and landline).

Notes:

BRFSS data may be subject to systematic errors that result from noncoverage (such as residence on college campuses or in the military), nonresponse (such as refusal to participate in the survey or answer specific questions), or measurement (such as social desirability or recall bias). This is true for all self-reported sample surveys.

To address other potential systematic errors, BRFSS began including people who use only cell phones in the survey sample in 2011.
The BRFSS survey is conducted by all 50 US states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and Palau. It consists of:

• A standardized core questionnaire with core questions that are asked every year (fixed core) and other questions that are asked every other year (rotating core).
• Optional modules that states can choose to use according to need.
• State-added questions.

Occasionally, a state may not collect enough data to meet the minimum requirements for inclusion in the BRFSS public-use dataset for a specific year.

Treatment of Missing Data

Responses that are missing or marked as “don’t know” or “not sure” are not included in the numerator or denominator unless otherwise stated.

Data Suppression

Current recommendations for suppression of BRFSS estimates are estimates with a relative standard error >30% or total respondents <50.

Age-Standardization:

Unless otherwise stated, age-adjusted prevalence is standardized by the direct method to the year 2000 projected US population using the following age groups: 18–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–64, and ≥65 years.

Sponsor

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Website:

https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems

Purpose:

To provide claims data for key attributes related to medical care, such as admission and discharge dates, diagnoses and procedure codes, source of care, date of death, and demographic data (such as age, race and ethnicity, place of residence).

Target Population:

All people enrolled in the Medicare program (enrollment data) and
Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries who filed claims (claims data), not including beneficiaries enrolled in managed care plans.

How Often Collected:

Annual

Mode of Collection

Abstraction of administrative and claims data.

Notes:

Procedure codes and the interpretation of Medicare coverage rules have changed over the life of the Medicare program. Practice patterns, care settings, and payment mechanisms can also affect claims records. In addition, medical conditions must be diagnosed to be listed as a diagnosis, and some diseases may be underdiagnosed.

Treatment of Missing Data

Cases that are missing are not included in the numerator or denominator unless otherwise stated.

Data Suppression

Age-Standardization:

Sponsor

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Website:

https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/npcr/index.htm

Purpose:

To collect, manage, and analyze data about cancer cases and deaths. Population-based central cancer registry data systems collect data on the occurrence of cancer; the type, extent, and location of the cancer; and the type of initial treatment.

Target Population:

The central cancer registries participating in NPCR cover 97% of the US population. These registries operate in 46 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands (Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau).
Together, NPCR and the National Institutes of Health’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program collect data for the entire US population.

How Often Collected:

Annual

Mode of Collection

Census: abstraction of data from medical records

Notes:

Data are then sent to central cancer registries. States, US territories, and freely associated states that participate in NPCR submit incidence data. NPCR and SEER work together to compile national cancer statistics from data submitted to these central registries.

Mortality data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics are added to the central cancer registries to provide a complete picture of cancer cases and deaths in the United States. The U.S. Cancer Data Visualization tool provides estimates from the registry data.

Treatment of Missing Data

Data are evaluated according to NCPR standards. Information about specific treatment of missing data is not provided.

Data Suppression

Age-Standardization:

Sponsor

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Website:

https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/nsch.html

Purpose:

TTo provide annual national and state-level information on the health and well-being of children aged 0 to 17 years in the United States.

Target Population:

Children aged 0 to 17 years in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

How Often Collected:

Annual (starting in 2016)

Mode of Collection

Data are collected through self-administered web and paper questionnaires. Respondents are parents or guardians living in the home who have knowledge of the sampled child.

Notes:

Treatment of Missing Data

Data Suppression

• The absolute confidence interval (CI) width is greater than 20%.
• The relative CI width is greater than 120% (1.2 times the estimate).
• The CI is inestimable because of no sample variance (estimate is exactly 0% or 100%).

Data will also be suppressed for Chronic Disease Indicators.

Age-Standardization:

Sponsor

Website:

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/index.htm

Purpose:

To present characteristics of people dying in the United States, to determine life expectancy, and to compare mortality trends in the United States with trends in other countries.

Target Population:

US population: death data for the entire United States for events occurring within the United States

How Often Collected:

Annual

Mode of Collection

Census: records of all deaths registered in the United States

Notes:

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which is revised periodically, codes and classifies causes of death. Because these revisions may prevent continuity in trend data by cause of death, comparison of death rates across different versions of the ICD should be made with caution and should include reference to the comparability ratios. The 10th Revision of the ICD (ICD-10) has been used since 1999. Revisions to the Standard Certificate of Death may also create a lack of continuity in the classification or availability of selected data items.

Details on methods used to calculate life expectancy are published by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Treatment of Missing Data

Data Suppression

• Death counts <20 are considered unreliable.
• Death counts of 1 to 9 are considered suppressed.

Data will also be suppressed for Chronic Disease Indicators.

Age-Standardization:

Sponsor

Website:

https://www.cdc.gov/prams/index.htm

Purpose:

To collect data to identify groups of women and infants at high risk for health problems, to monitor changes in health status, and to measure progress toward goals to improve the health of mothers and infants.

Target Population:

Women with a recent live birth

How Often Collected:

Annual

Mode of Collection

Sample survey: mail and web questionnaire with telephone follow-up for nonrespondents. Before 2023, PRAMS was conducted as a mail questionnaire with telephone follow-up for nonrespondents.

Notes:

As of 2020, all states except California, Idaho, and Ohio participate in PRAMS. Live births reported in PRAMS represent 81% of all births in the United States.

Treatment of Missing Data

Data Suppression

Age-Standardization:

Sponsor

Website:

https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/dataviz

Purpose:

To provide estimates on newly diagnosed cancer cases and cancer deaths for the whole U.S. population. This national coverage enables the public, including researchers, clinicians, policy makers, and public health professionals, to (a) monitor populations most affected by cancer, (b) evaluate the success of programs designed to prevent cancer and diagnose cancer at early stages, and (c) identify additional needs for cancer prevention and control efforts at national, state, and local levels.

Target Population:

U.S. population

Periodicity

Annual

Mode of Collection

Incidence data are from the registries participating in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) and the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI’s) Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. Data from state central cancer registries that are supported by both NPCR and SEER are presented as reported to CDC in 2022. Medical records are the primary source of data on cancer incidence. Staff at health care facilities abstract data from patients’ medical records, enter it into the facility’s cancer registry (if it has one), and then send the data to the central registry. Other data sources include physicians’ offices, radiation facilities, freestanding surgical centers, and pathology laboratories. Cancer mortality statistics are based on information from all death certificates filed in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, and processed by the National Vital Statistics System. The population estimates for the denominators of incidence and death rates are race-specific, ethnicity-specific, and sex-specific county population estimates aggregated to the state or metropolitan-area level.

For more information on data sources see U.S. Cancer Statistics Data Visualizations tool Technical Notes.

Notes:

Most recent information is available at U. S. Cancer Statistics Data Visualizations tool Technical Notes and archived information for data from previous data submissions is available in Archived Reports and Technical Notes section.

Treatment of Missing Data

Data are evaluated according to NCPR standards. For more information see U.S. Cancer Statistics Data Visualizations tool Technical Notes.

Data Suppression

Rates and counts are suppressed if fewer than 16 cases (or deaths) were reported in a specific category, such as cancer type, race or ethnicity, age, or state. For more information on data suppressions see U.S. Cancer Statistics Data Visualizations tool Technical Notes.

Age-Standardization:

Rates are the number of cases (or deaths) per 100,000 people. They are age-adjusted to the 2000 US standard population (19 age groups, Census P25-1130).

Sponsor

Incidence data are from CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) and the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. Mortality data are from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. Population estimated are based data from U.S. Census Bureau, United States Department of Commerce.

Suggested Citation: U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group. U.S. Cancer Statistics Data Visualizations Tool, based on 2022 submission data (1999-2020): U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Cancer Institute; https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/dataviz, released in November 2023.

Website:

https://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/wic-program

Purpose:

To provide information on participant income and nutrition risk characteristics and estimates of breastfeeding initiation rates for WIC infants.

Target Population:

WIC participants

Conducted:

Implementation began in 2018. Conducted annually.

Data Sponsor:

United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service

Sponsor:

Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce