Resources for the General Public

Growth Charts

Growth charts are a series of percentile curves that show the distribution of selected body measurements in children. Pediatricians, nurses, and parents have used pediatric growth charts to monitor the growth of infants, children, and adolescents in the United States since 1977.

CDC recommends that health care providers:

• Use the World Health Organization to monitor growth for infants and children aged 0 to 2 years in the United States
• Use the CDC growth charts for children aged 2 years and over in the United States

These charts are not intended to be used as the only tool to measure growth. Instead, growth charts help to form an overall clinical impression for the child being measured.

 

Where to Write for Vital Records

 The National Center for Health Statistics’ Division of Vital Statistics provides links for those who want direct access to information about individual vital records kept on file only in state or local vital statistics offices. To use this valuable tool, you must first determine the state or area where the birth, death, marriage, or divorce occurred, then click on that state or area. 

 

Health, United States

The Health, United States series presents an annual overview of national trends in health statistics. The report contains a chartbook that assesses the country’s health by presenting trends and current information on specific measures of morbidity, mortality, health care use and access, health risk factors, illness prevention, health insurance, and personal health care costs.

 

FastStats

The FastStats website provides quick access to statistics on important public health topics and is organized alphabetically. Also, you can find publications that include the statistics presented, more data sources, and related web pages.

 

Publications

Browse our online library of publications. Search by keyword or topic, such as births and deaths.