NCHS

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is a U.S. federal statistical agency responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating data on health and health care. It operates within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), part of the Department of Health and Human Services. The center was established in 1960 as part of the Public Health Service to produce official statistics on health in the United States, and its work today supports public health policy, program evaluation, and research.

Its core activities include designing and conducting national surveys, maintaining vital statistics systems, and producing official health indicators. Major programs include the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS), which provides authoritative data on births, deaths, and fetal deaths; the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), a large household survey on health status, health care access, and risk factors; and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which combines interviews and physical examinations to assess health and nutrition.

Data products are published as reports, tables, and data briefs, and are available through the NCHS website in public-use data files, statistical tables, and developer-friendly formats. These statistics are used by federal and state agencies, researchers, clinicians, and the public to monitor health trends, compare populations, assess disease burden, and inform health policy and resource allocation.

NCHS collaborates with state and local health departments, academic institutions, and international organizations to enhance data collection and comparability. The center emphasizes data quality, timeliness, and accessibility, and its statistics are widely regarded as foundational to U.S. health surveillance.