Request NSCH Datasets

DATA ALERT: A processing error at Census affected variables related to the calculation of breastfeeding exclusivity from 2016 to 2021. The reported time in months for breastfeeding, age of first formula, and introduction of solid foods was incorrectly rounded down by 1 month in most cases. Census has released new data to correct the issue along with a summary of the impact of the corrected versus original versions of the variables.

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 and 2021 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.

Click here to submit your Dataset Request.