National Survey of Family Growth

Overview

The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) gathers information on pregnancy and births, marriage and cohabitation, infertility, use of contraception, family life, and general and reproductive health. NSFG is conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Data

Geographic variables

The most common request for restricted NSFG data is access to contextual information on the respondent's state or county of residence. Contextual information is available starting in 1976.

The table, Geographic variables from NSFG, shows the contextual variables available for each file. These variables may be used to merge external information about place of residence onto the files. After the merge, geographic identifiers of interest are replaced with a masked version of those variables. The actual locations in the sample cannot be identified. Masked versions of geographic variables can be used as controls, if needed. Estimates cannot be produced for specific states or counties.

State-level characteristics and other contextual data can be used with the data files in NCHS’s Research Data Center.

Additional restricted-use survey variables

Additional restricted-use survey variables are also available for some data releases, such as detailed information about the respondent's race. Please see the information below for specific information about each data release.

2017–2019

• Contextual file

Restricted-use survey variables

• Female respondent and female pregnancy files
• Male respondent file

Paradata and interviewer observations files for combined 2015–2017 and 2017–2019 Files (2015–2019)

2015–2017

• Contextual variables

Restricted-use survey variables

• Female respondent and female pregnancy files
• Male respondent file

2013–2015

• Contextual variables

Restricted-use survey variables

• Female respondent file
• Male respondent file

Paradata and interviewer observations files for combined 2011–2013 and 2013–2015 Files (2011–2015)

2011–2013

• Contextual variables

Restricted-use survey variables

• Female respondent file
• Male respondent file

2006–2010

Contextual file

• 2006–2010 NSFG codebook for place of interview
• 2006–2010 NSFG list of contextual variables

Restricted–use survey variables

• Female respondent file
• Male respondent file

ACASI data

NSFG cycle 6 (2002)

Contextual file

• Contextual data file codebook
• Variables contained on the NSFG Cycle 6 contextual data files

Interviewer observation variables

ACASI data

NSFG cycle 5 (1995)

Contextual file

• Contextual file user's guide

Omitted items file

• Omitted items user's guide
• Omitted items codebook

NSFG cycle 2 (1976), 3 (1982), and 4 (1988)

1976, 1982, and 1988 NSFG contextual variables are listed in "Geographic variables from NSFG."