About the Data

The data used to construct the Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) were obtained from a variety of federal agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services, Environmental Protection Agency, Census Bureau, and Department of Labor. The data reported are publicly available data.

CHSI data is reported at the county-level, representing several areas of responsibility for public health such as access to and utilization of healthcare services, birth and death measures, vulnerable populations, risk-factors for premature deaths, communicable diseases, and environmental health. The estimates presented in the report rely on various data sources, methods, and calculations. The estimates are consistent across the CHSI reports, but the calculations may not correlate with other established methods for analyses of the same data.

Understanding there may be more than one method for calculating rates or percentages, as well as more than one definition of the same problem or source, the descriptions that are provided in the underlying documentation are the choices made for this project and the means for ensuring that health measures for communities are consistent and not based on differing definitions or methodologies. Users should be aware of the limitations of these estimates and understand that any estimated data do not represent official Department of Health and Human Services statistics.

Detailed information on data sources and methodology by topic is available in the data details section at the bottom of each web page. The same information is compiled and available in a printable form in Data Sources, Definitions, and Notes (PDF - 261KB).

The complete CHSI Dataset can be downloaded for research and analysis purposes. The download file includes a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet containing several worksheets. There is a separate worksheet for the data elements in each of the indicator domains in CHSI. There is also a worksheet that defines each data element and indicates where its description is found in Data Sources, Definitions, and Notes. Finally, there is a worksheet that defines the meaning of specific values (such as missing or suppressed data). In addition, each of the worksheets in the Excel file is presented as a .csv (comma-separated value) file to insure accessibility. An accompanying text file identifies each of the .csv files. The Excel spreadsheet, the text file identifying the .csv files, and the set of .csv files are contained in the CHSI Dataset file (ZIP - 4.03MB).

If you can't open the Excel spreadsheet, please download the latest version of Microsoft Excel Viewer.