National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH)

What is the NSCH?

The NSCH supports national efforts to improve the health and development of our children. 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.

Get the DATA and Newest Resources

The datasets are released annually on Child Health Day. The newest dataset is the 2021 dataset.

• NSCH datasets at the U.S. Census Bureau
• Data Brief Healthy Weight: Foundations in Early Childhood (PDF - 1 MB) (April 2023)
• Variations in fruit, vegetable, and sugar sweetened beverage intake among young children by state, United States 2021. (February 17, 2023) MCHB co-authored this with the CDC.
• 2021 NSCH: Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic Data Brief (PDF - 166 KB) (October 2022)
• Watch our Webinar: The National Survey of Children's Health: Current Opportunities and Future Directions. This webinar provides an overview of this dataset, innovations in survey content, advancements in state oversamples, how to access data, and the timeline of the dataset availability. The webinar also features information about the longitudinal cohort.
• Video Message about the Latest Data Release - 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 where they discuss what's new in the 2021 dataset, how the dataset can be used to advance health equity, and what's ahead in the 2022 data release.

2020 NSCH and Earlier Data Briefs

• 2019-2020 Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (PDF) (June 2022)
• 2019-2020 Rural Children's Health and Health Care (PDF - 533 KB) (February 2022)
• NSCH Data Brief of Key Findings for 2019/2020 as well as five-year trends (PDF - 467 KB) (October 2021)
• 2018-2019 Mental and Behavioral Health Data Brief (PDF - 146 KB)
• 2017-2018 Rural/Urban Differences in Children’s Health (PDF - 194 KB)
• 2017-2018 National Survey of Children's Health - Overview (PDF - 660 KB)
• 2017-2018 Children with Special Health Care Needs Data Brief (PDF - 942 KB)
• 2017-2018 Title V Block Grant Measure Data Brief (PDF - 311 KB)
• 2017-2018 Adverse Childhood Experiences Data Brief (PDF - 450 KB)
• Press Release: New Estimates of Childhood ACEs, from the 2017-2018 NSCH

Survey Resources

• NSCH Codebook at the U.S. Census
• Questionnaires, Datasets, and Supporting Documents
• Our staff publications/presentations
• State Oversampling in the National Survey of Children's Health
• Data Users Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)
• Participants Frequently Asked Questions

Archived Surveys

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 2003, 2007, 2011-2012 National Surveys of Children’s Health
• The 2001, the 2005-2006, and the 2009-2010 National Surveys of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN)

NSCH in the Broader Context

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.

Contact Us

Michael D. Kogan, Ph.D., Director
MCHB Office of Epidemiology and Research