Health Statistics provide defensible, credible information, assessments and interpretations designed to identify and characterize human health problems, and to guide actions and policies to improve human health.
 

Statistics is a sub-discipline of applied mathematics that focuses on collection and interpretation of quantitative data. It uses probability theory to estimate an ever-increasing number of such population parameters as incidences of disease, or the success of interventions. Significantly, health statistics is not only a resource for defensible health information, it is a central basis for public health and health policy (for such stakeholders as individuals as well as governmental and private sector organizations).
 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, health statistics allows:
 

• documenting the health status of populations and of important subgroups;
• identifying disparities in health status and use of health care by race or ethnicity, socioeconomic status, region, and other population-based characteristics;
• describing experiences with health care systems;
• monitoring trends in health status and health care delivery;
• identifying health problems;
• supporting biomedical and health services research;
• providing information for making changes in public policies and programs; and
• evaluating the impacts of health policies and programs.

Image: CDC