Child Development Data and Statistics | Child Development

Child development data and statistics

Kids Count U.S. Census Data is a national and state-by-state project of the Casey Foundation to track the status of children in the United States. Data available for analysis include family and child demographics, and measures of child educational, social, economic, and physical well-being.

National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) examines the physical and emotional health of children ages 0–17 years of age. The survey provides data to estimate national and state-level prevalence of physical, emotional, and behavioral child health indicators as well as information on the child’s family context and neighborhood environment.

National Survey on Drug Use & Health (formerly National Household Survey on Drug Abuse) is an annual nationwide survey involving interviews with approximately 70,000 randomly selected individuals aged 12 and older. The survey provides national and state-level data on the use of tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs (including nonmedical use of prescription drugs) and mental health in the United States.

National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) has monitored the health of the nation since 1957. The NHIS is a large-scale household interview survey of a statistically representative sample of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population. Interview data are collected on a broad range of health topics including, caregiver reports of child health, mental health and disability status.

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) assesses the health and nutritional status of a nationally representative sample of about 5,000 adults and children in the United States. The survey combines interviews and physical examinations and includes demographic, socioeconomic, dietary, and health-related questions. The examination component consists of medical, dental, and physiological measurements, as well as laboratory tests administered by highly trained medical personnel.

National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) gathers information on family life, marriage and divorce, pregnancy, infertility, use of contraception, and general and reproductive health.

National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) contains vital statistics from the official records of live births, deaths, fetal deaths, marriages, divorces, and annulments recorded by states and independent registration areas

Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) is an ongoing national school-based survey designed to monitor priority health-risk behaviors and the prevalence of obesity and asthma among youth and young adults in grades 9–12 in the United States. Data were collected from students biennially beginning in 1991. Approximately 16,000 students completed the survey in the most recent data collection wave in 2009.

Data tools

America’s Children is a report on key national indicators of well-being published annually by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. The America’s Children series makes federal data on children and families available in a nontechnical, easy-to-use format in order to stimulate discussion among data providers, policymakers, and the public.

Healthy People 2030 provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans, including infants, children, and adolescents.

NCHS Survey Measures Catalog of the National Center on Health Statistics provides an overview of questions about child and adolescent mental health, and functioning and disability in various surveys of the NCHS Data Systems. Some of the survey measures are included in both the mental health section and the functioning and disability section of the catalog.

Feature articles

Childhood and adolescence are critical stages of life for mental health.