Research Guides: POLI 256 US Health Policy: Websites

Try Harvard's Think Tank Search

Harvard's Kennedy School of Government library created a custom Google Think Tank Search. It helps you find hundreds of US and international think tanks

Think tanks are defined by the above as "institutions affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, non-governmental organizations, and businesses that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity."

Tips:

Search these selected think tanks by keywords to find research and analysis. If one seems most relevant to your topic, go to the home page and mine the site for publications, issues, research, and links to other organizations.
Not all think tanks are created equal! Check out Harvard's Kennedy School of Government guide for great tips and resources for evaluating think tanks.

Google Scholar

Helpful Websites for Statistics

National Institutes of Health
Go to Health Information, click your topic, then find Data and Statistics.
Centers for Disease Control - Data & Statistics
The CDC is a part of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and is the primary federal agency for public health. The Data & Statistics site offers health statistics on a range of topics, including global health.
Pew Research Center
Fertility of Women in the United States: 2018
Census Bureau
Use to get demographic data from 2010 Census and the American Community Survey (ACS). Use the menu at the bottom to get to American Factfinder for summary profiles for municipalities and counties, NAICS for industry classification codes, and the Economic Census and the 2010 Census.

US Census Bureau
American’s Families and Living Arrangements provides information on marriages. Formerly Marital Status and Living Arrangements.

The Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study
The Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study follows a cohort of nearly 5,000 children born in large U.S. cities between 1998 and 2000 (roughly three-quarters of whom were born to unmarried parents). "Fragile families" are families of unmarried parents and their children at greater risk of breaking up and living in poverty than more traditional families. A joint effort by Princeton and Columbia Universities.

Statista
Basic individual account option allows you to access free statistics, save favorites, and download some data.
openICPSR
openICPSR is a research data-sharing service for social and behavioral sciences. It allows the public to access research data at no charge.

Getting Started with Health Statistics

This online tutorial from the National Library of Medicine is a great place to get started to learn about health data and statistics.

Data vs. Statistics

"Data" and "Statistics" are two words that we tend to use interchangeably and yet they refer to 2 very different things. Data is the raw information from which statistics are created. Statistics, in turn, provide a summary of data.