Listen to a conversation between Dr. Reem Ghandour, Director of the NSCH, and LCDR Leticia Manning of the Division of Services for Children with Special Health Needs, as they describe
We fund and direct the NSCH, which is a household survey conducted annually by the U.S. Census Bureau. The NSCH produces national and state level data for key measures of child health and well-being. These data are essential to understanding the health status and health services needs of children across the nation and in your state and community.
NSCH datasets at the U.S. Census Bureau
2021 NSCH: Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic Data Brief (PDF - 166 KB) (October 2022)
Our partner, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), houses surveys and survey data we used prior to the 2016 NSCH redesign:
The NSCH supports national efforts to improve the health and development of our children.
The data are publicly available through the Data Resource Center for Child & Adolescent Health, a project of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative. This resource center provides access through an online interactive data query.
The Title V Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Block Grant uses the NSCH to inform many of their national outcome and performance measures that track the health and well-being of children.
The Maternal and Child Health Jurisdictional Survey (MCH-JS) (PDF - 646 KB) is a new effort to provide information on the health and well-being of mothers and children in eight United States-affiliated jurisdictions. We based the survey on the NSCH, and then included questions on the health of mothers too. The survey provides data for 24 Title V national outcome and performance measures, previously unavailable for the jurisdictions.
Healthy People 2030 — an initiative that sets data-driven national objectives to improve the health and well-being over the next decade — also uses the NSCH to inform 15 of their objectives.
Michael D. Kogan, Ph.D., Director
MCHB Office of Epidemiology and Research