Request NSCH Datasets
As part of our mission to advance the use of child health data, the Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health offers enhanced analytical datasets and codebooks based on the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) and the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN) data files provided to the public by the US Census Bureau or the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 NSCH public use data files are available on the Census Bureau website. DRC Indicator Datasets include all records and variables from the NCHS or Census Bureau public use data files for the surveys. Additional content includes dozens of additional variables corresponding to measures of children's health status, health care quality and system performance for any state featured in the DRC online data query. Also provided when possible are variables used for DRC subpopulation comparisons and analyses by any state, District of Columbia or HRSA region. SPSS, SAS and STATA datasets are available, and variables are formatted and clearly labeled.
Data Alert! In 2024, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the Census Bureau revised imputation and weighting by race and ethnicity for the NSCH. The updated weights have been applied to the 2021, 2022 and 2021-2022 NSCH DRC constructed datasets, but have not been applied to the 2016-2020 NSCH DRC datasets. The indicators and measures displayed on the DRC interactive data query from 2016-2020 NSCH can be recreated with updated weights by applying the codes available in the DRC codebooks to the updated public use files provided on the U.S. Census Bureau’s website. Please read the weighting revisions technical document for more information.
Click here to submit your Dataset Request.