History of Medicine

Statistics are always a challenge to find. This guide is meant to point to some key data compilations, but is not authoritative. For information about locating health/medical statistics and information about organizations that produce health statistics, consult:

• Health Statistics Research Guide. 
• General Statistics

• If you need recent population statistics, try the Statistical Yearbook of the League of Nations. (1926-1943/44). This is the pilot site for Northwestern University Library's League of Nations Digitization Project. This site contains the full text of more than 250 titles (49,000 pages) of selected documents. For more information about the League see the Research Guide to League of Nations Documents and Publications. Important: To access the collection, choose the "Browse by year, " option and then see chapters on "Population."
• Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970. Access CD-ROM from workstation in Joseph Regenstein Library first floor reading room OR print at Crerar Reference, floor 1HA202.A3 1975 OR Reading Rm, floor 2 Regenstein HA202.A3 1975
• Historical statistics of the United States, Colonial times to 1957; continuation to 1962 and revisions. [Washington For sale by the Sup. of Docs. U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1965] Regenstein Stacks HA202.A3 1960 supp
• Selected Historical Census Data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division. Includes: Population and Housing Counts: 1790 to 1990 Population and Geographic Centers: 1790 to 1990 Urban and Rural Definitions and Data: 1790 to 1990 Housing Tables: 1940-1990 Income Tables: 1970, 1980, and 1990 censuses Poverty Tables: 1970, 1980, and 1990 censuses.
• United States Historical Census Data Browser. The data presented here describe the people and the economy of the US for each state and county from 1790 to 1960. This site is made available with the cooperation and consent of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The data displayed here were inititally created by ICPSR.

Andrea Twiss-Brooks
Director, Humanities and Area Studies
Chemistry and Geophysical Sciences Librarian
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