Resources for Children and Adolescents

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) provides statistics, data, and resources to monitor the health and well-being of children and adolescents in the United States.

Key Statistics

• FastStats: Statistics by Topic
  Important indicators and links on the health of children and adolescents
  • Adolescent Health
  • Allergies
  • Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
  • Child Health
  • Immunization
  • Teen Pregnancy
• DATA2010
  The database for Healthy People 2010 provides selected health estimates for adolescents and young adults.

Data Sources With a Focus on Children and Adolescents

• National Immunization Survey – Teen (NIS-Teen)
  NIS-Teen was established to provide an ongoing, consistent data set for analyzing vaccination levels among adolescents in the United States and disseminating this information to interested public health partners.
• National Youth Fitness Survey
  A new, one-of-a-kind survey that will be collecting data on physical activity and fitness to provide an evaluation of the health and fitness of children in the United States aged 3 to 15 years.
• State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey (SLAITS)
  SLAITS provides a mechanism to collect data quickly on a broad range of topics at the national, state, and local levels and uses the same random-digit-dial telephone design approach and sampling frame as the ongoing National Immunization Survey. SLAITS modules with a focus on children include:
  • Child Well-Being and Welfare
  • Influenza Vaccination Module for Children
  • National Survey of Adoptive Parents of Children with Special Health Care Needs
  • National Survey of Children’s Health
  • National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs
  • National Survey of Early Childhood Health

Publications

• America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2012
• NCHS Data Briefs
  • Diagnostic History and Treatment of School-aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Special Health Care Needs
  • Birth Rates for U.S. Teenagers Reach Historic Lows for All Age and Ethnic Groups
  • Consumption of Added Sugar Among U.S. Children and Adolescents, 2005–2008
  • Antidepressant Use in Persons Aged 12 and Over: United States, 2005–2008
  • Low-fat Milk Consumption Among Children and Adolescents in the United States, 2007–2008
  • Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Among Children Aged 5-17 Years in the United States, 1998-2009
  • U.S. Teenage Birth Rate Resumes Decline
  • Obesity and Socioeconomic Status in Children and Adolescents: United States, 2005-2008
  • State Disparities in Teenage Birth Rates in the United States
  • Educating Teenagers About Sex in the United States
  • Mortality Among Teenagers Aged 12-19 Years: United States, 1999-2006
  • Food Allergy Among U.S. Children: Trends in Prevalence and Hospitalizations

Additional Resources

• Growth Charts
  Pediatric growth charts have been used by pediatricians, nurses, and parents to track the growth of infants, children, and adolescents in the United States since 1977.

The National Center for Health Statistics has produced a poster entitled, “I Want to be a Statistician Just Like my Mom.” Two electronic versions of the poster are available and may be freely printed and distributed: The “Web Version” is created with a higher compression ratio and has a smaller file size more suitable for the Web. The “Print Version” is considerably larger but will have better resolution when printed.

Web Version pdf icon[PDF – 304 KB]

Print Version pdf icon[PDF – 4.2 MB]