This guide provides links to sources of data and statistics collected and provided by numerous organizations and agencies.  You can find potential sources of data and statistics by topic area.  Health data and statistics can be difficult to find. Some of the things that make this so challenging are:

• Health data collection is decentralized, and carried out by many different government, non-governmental and private agencies, and organizations.  This will include organizations working at the national, state, and local levels.  Data quality, collection methodology and accessibility will vary considerably.
• Data collection and dissemination takes time and resources.  There is often a lag time between collection and availability, and thus real-time data can be difficult to come by
• If you're looking for help finding and using health statistics, look at the resources below.
• For curated collections of sources for health-related statistics and data sets at the state, national, and global level, click on the links at left.