To help identify health statistics and data sources ask yourself the following questions:
Is there a government agency or organization that would collect the data you are looking for?
Do you need current or historical data?
What type of data do you need (demographic, vital statistics, health, etc.)?
What level of data do you need (provincial/state, country, continent, etc.)?
Health Statistics Tutorial (NLM)
This tutorial is American centric but helps you find, understand and use various health statistics sources
Finding and using health statisticsThis course for librarians and students in health sciences describes different types of health statistics, how they are collected, and where they can be found.
"FAOSTAT provides free access to food and agriculture data for over 245 countries and territories and covers all FAO regional groupings
from 1961 to the most recent year available." From the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
"Welcome to the GHDx, the world’s most comprehensive catalog of surveys, censuses, vital statistics, and other health-related data. It’s the place to start your health data search."
"The OECD carries out work on health data and indicators to improve international comparisons and economic analyses of health systems."
OECD iLibraryThe online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) features its books, papers and statistics, and is the gateway to OECD’s analysis and data. The OECD iLibrary contains content published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the OECD Development Centre, PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), and the International Transport Forum (ITF). Excellent for comparative social and economic data.
"DataBank is an analysis and visualisation tool that contains collections of time series data on a variety of topics. You can create your own queries; generate tables, charts, and maps; and easily save, embed, and share them."
World Development Indicators (World Bank)The primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.
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