LibGuides: Public Health: Data, Statistics, and Grey Literature

Below you will find links to a variety of sources for data and statistical information on the city, state, and country level, as well as international resources. There are also some sources for grey literature -- research that is unpublished or published through non-commercial channels.

New York City and State Data & Statistics

NYC Vital Statistics
NYS Department of Health

Data & reports form the NYC DOH
EpiQuery: NYC Interactive Health Data

EpiQuery provides data on the health of New Yorkers from a variety of sources, including surveys, surveillance data, and vital records.
NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

More data resources from the NYC DOH.
NYC Community Health Profiles
NYC Health Data
InfoShare

Population statistics, immigration trends, socio-economic indicators, birth and death data, hospitalizations, local trade data, and more.

NYC Community Health Survey
Conducted annually, the CHS provides robust data on the health of New Yorkers, including neighborhood, borough, and citywide estimates on a broad range of chronic diseases and behavioral risk factors.
NYC Environment & Health Data Portal
Data and resources for researching how environments affect health. A project by the NYC DOH and Mental Hygiene’s Bureau of Environmental Surveillance and Policy.
NYC Open Data
Free public data published by NYC agencies and other partners.
NYC Food Policy Center: Foodscape Reports
NYC Foodscape Reports compile data and research in an accessible format to provide a community-level snapshot of neighborhoods' food environments. Reports are updated every six months by Hunter College's NYC Food Policy Center.

National Data & Statistics

America's Health Rankings
America’s Health Rankings provides analyses 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.
American Community Survey (ACS)
The ACS releases new data every year through a variety of data tables that you can access with different data tools.
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
Part of the CDC, the BRFSS collects data via telephone interviews in order to track health conditions and risk behaviors in the United States.
CDC National Center for Health Statistics
Access and download public-use data files and documentation from NCHS surveys and data collection systems.
CDC Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (Wonder)
CDC Wonder is a system that makes the information resources of the CDC available to public health professionals and the public at large. It provides access to a wide array of public health information.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Data Archive
Data and statistics made available by the CDC on a wide variety of health topics. Also contains links to other useful government websites.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
CMS is part of the Department of Health & Human Services and is the federal agency that administers Medicare, Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
County Health Rankings & Roadmaps
Explore health-related datasets & documentation -- search by state, county or zip code. Created and maintained by the U of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
Data.gov
Home of the U.S. Government's Open data.
Here you will find over 300,000 data sets, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations, and more.
HealthData.gov
Website managed by the US Department of Health & Human Services which offers high-value data accessible to the public.
Health Resources & Services Information (HRSA) Data Warehouse
The HRSA Data Warehouse provides maps, data, and reports to the public. Our data integrates with external sources, such as the U.S. Census Bureau, providing information about HRSA’s grants, loan and scholarship programs, health centers and other public health programs and services.
The Kaiser Family Foundation
Kaiser is a non-profit organization focusing on national health issues, as well as the U.S. role in global health policy.
National Cancer Institute: Center for Biomedical Informatics & Information Technology
National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
Part of the CDC, the NCHS provides statistical information in an effort to guide policy to improve the health of the American People.
National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR)
Part of the National Library of Medicine
National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR)
Part of the CDC, the NPCR contains data collected by local cancer registries
OpenFEMA Data Sets
Racial Equity Dataset
Dataset includes state legislation enacted in 2021-22 related to the issue of racial equity. These laws are organized into categories of the social determinants of health, including subcategories. Created & maintained by The Network for Public Health Law.

Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
Social Explorer is dedicated to providing demographic information in an easily understood format: data maps. The database contains hundreds of interactive data maps of the United States. From Queens College.

Social Explorer Guide
Best practices & support for using Social Explorer. Includes a tab devoted to Public Health-related topics & usage.
State Health Data
US Census Bureau

International Data & Statistics

World Health Organization

Includes data from the Global Health Observatory (GHO), Global Health Estimates (GHE), and the WHO Mortality Database.
UN Data

Country/regional profiles and a variety of databases based on UN-collected- information.
Global Health Data Exchange

Comprehensive catalog of surveys, censuses, vital statistics, and other global health-related data.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)

IHME is an independent global health research center at the University of Washington
Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)

The DHS Program has collected, analyzed, and disseminated data on population, health, HIV, and nutrition through more than 300 surveys in over 90 countries.

World Bank Open Data
Provides free and open access to global development data.
World Development Indicators
The WDI is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.
CIA World Fact Book
Provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities.
FAO Country Profiles
An information retrieval tool which groups the FAO's archive of information on its global activities in agriculture and development in a single area and catalogues it exclusively by country.

NY Academy of Medicine

NY Academy of Medicine Data Sets
Contains links to national, international, local (NYC & NY State) & aging data sets recommended by Academy librarians.

Grey Literature

Grey Literature refers to research produced by organizations outside of traditional commercial publishing channels. This is material created outside of the traditional scholarly communications infrastructure (journals and commercial publishers) which can include dissertations, conference papers, white papers, reports, data -- all things that you won't find on databases like PubMed.

CUNY Academic Works
Searchable database including CUNY students' theses and dissertations. CUNY Academic Works is a service of the CUNY Libraries.
Grey Literature in Health Research
A comprehensive guide to grey literature research in the health sciences from The Graduate Health & Life Sciences Research Library at Georgetown University Medical Center.
Grey Literature Report
These reports are a publications produced by the New York Academy of Medicine between 1999 - 2016, alerting readers to new grey literature publications in health services research and selected urban health topics.
GreyNet International
Founded in 1992, the goal of GreyNet is to facilitate dialog, research, and communication between persons and organizations in the field of grey literature. GreyNet further seeks to identify and distribute information on and about grey literature in networked environments.
Harvard Kennedy School: Think Tank
Provides a Google Custom Search of more than 1200 think tanks and research centers, both domestic and international. Includes a section on evaluating Think Tanks.
MedlinePlus Organization Directory
Collection of organizations & agencies providing health information.
OpenGrey
Open Grey is a place to find grey literature on a variety of topics in European research.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I This link opens in a new window
Citation index to dissertations and theses. CCNY submissions can be viewed as full text
ProQuest Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Not just newspapers. Access dissertations, theses, conference papers, reports, working papers & websites.

Science.gov
Science.gov is a gateway to U.S. government science information. The portal offers free access to research and development results and scientific and technical information from scientific organizations across 13 federal agencies.
SSRN
Devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of preprints and research papers and composed of a number of specialized research networks.
WorldCat
The world's largest library catalog, containing over 1.5 billion items. WorldCat.org is supported by OCLC, a nonprofit global library organization that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs so libraries can better fuel learning, research, and innovation.