Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System

YRBSS Data & Documentation

Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data are available in two file formats: Access® and ASCII. The Access and ASCII data can be downloaded and used as is. Additionally, SAS® and SPSS® programs are provided to convert the ASCII data into SAS® and SPSS® datasets for use in those packages. Note: YRBS documentation files on this page are within the following file size ranges: pdfs: 45K-1M; dat files: 3M-5M; sas programs: 2K-15K; sps programs: 2K-25K; zip files: 2M-6M.

The combined YRBS dataset includes national, state, and large urban school district data from selected surveys from 1991-2015. The Combined Datasets User’s Guide[PDF - 690 KB] provides detailed information about how to analyze the data

ASCII

2015

National data files are downloadable from this website. To request state, district, territory, or tribal government data files, please use the YRBSS Data Request Form .

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Additional Resources

Software for Analysis of YRBS Data[PDF - 389 KB]
A review of software packages suitable for analyzing YRBS data and guidance on how to use them
Combining YRBS Data Across Years and Sites[PDF - 226 KB]
Guidance and best practices for combining data from multiple Youth Risk Behavior Surveys (YRBSs)
Conducting Trend Analyses of YRBS Data[PDF - 235 KB]
Guidance and methods for conducting trend analyses of Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS)
- Interpretation of YRBS Trend Data[PDF - 228 KB]
  Guidance on interpreting YRBS trend data analyses
- How to Analyze YRBS Sexual Minority Data[PDF - 143 KB]
  Guidance and best practices for analyzing data from the sexual identity and sex of sexual contacts questions.

Using ASCII Files:

Save the ASCII data file to a folder on your computer.
Specify column locations for each variable as needed by the software you are using.

Note: SAS and SPSS programs need to be used to convert ASCII into SAS and SPSS datasets. How to use the ASCII data varies from one software package to another. Column positions for each variable usually have to be specified. Column positions for each variable can be found in the documentation for each year’s data. Consult your software documentation for more information.