YRBSS Frequently Asked Questions

YRBSS data are not available by zip code, census tract, or school. Sample size limitations and confidentiality requirements do not support analyses at these levels.

YRBSS data are available for a small number of specifically funded local school districts or counties. CDC funds certain local school districts to conduct the YRBS. Some of those local school districts are county-based. See Participation Maps & History for more information about county-based local school districts with YRBSS data. Data are only available for local school districts or counties on the list. No other local YRBSS data are available.

County-level identifiers are not available in the National YRBS data set or in most state data sets.

Most YRBSs are conducted during the spring of odd-numbered years and results are released in the summer of the following year. For example, results from the 2019 national, state, and local YRBSs were released in an MMWR Surveillance Summary during the summer of 2020. The specific release date for a given cycle is posted on the YRBSS home page as soon as it has been determined.

YRBSS questionnaires should be cited as follows:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [survey year] Youth Risk Behavior Survey Questionnaire. Accessed [date]. www.cdc.gov/yrbs.

The YRBSS questionnaires are in the public domain, and no permission is required to use them. You may download and use the questionnaires as is or with changes at no charge.

Yes. Beginning with the 2021 cycle, the National YRBS questionnaire is available in Spanish. Translation of state and local YRBSS questionnaires is left to the discretion of state and local agencies.

YRBS questionnaires are designed to be administered in a school setting. It is important to consider the language used in regular classrooms and common second languages, if any, spoken by the student population. Check with school officials before deciding whether translation is needed.

YRBSS questionnaires in English and Spanish are in the public domain. Questionnaires may be translated to any language. No specific permission is required.

State, territorial, and tribal governments, as well as local agencies and nongovernmental organizations use YRBSS data to set and track progress toward meeting school health and health promotion program goals.

They also use YRBSS data to support modification of school health curricula or other programs, support new legislation and policies that promote health, and seek funding and other support for new initiatives.

CDC and other federal agencies routinely use YRBSS data to assess trends in priority health behaviors among high school students, monitor progress toward achieving national health objectives, and evaluate the contribution of broad prevention efforts in schools and other settings.

These activities support efforts to reduce health risk behaviors among young people.

Uses of Youth Risk Behavior Survey and School Health Profiles Data: Applications for Improving Adolescent and School Health

Foti K, Balaji A, Shanklin S. J Sch Health. 2011;81(6):345–354.

Yes. The YRBSS tracks aggregate changes in student behavior over time.

No. A new sample of schools and students is drawn for each survey cycle. Students who participated cannot be tracked because no identifying information is collected.

Although prevalence estimates generated for students in each racial or ethnic subgroup are representative of these students nationally, caution should be used when analyzing and interpreting these data. Because of the small numbers of students in some racial or ethnic subgroups who participate in any single National YRBS, the estimates may lack precision. Precision can be improved by combining multiple years of National YRBS data.

See Software for Analysis of YRBS Data for a review of software packages suitable for analyzing YRBSS data and guidance on how to use them.

National, state, territorial, and tribal government data and local data come from separate scientific samples of schools and students. National YRBS data are not the aggregate of the state YRBS data sets. State, territorial, and tribal government data and local YRBS data are not subsets of the National YRBSS data set. Both national, state, territory, tribal government YRBSs and local YRBSs all follow the same survey methodology and use the same core questionnaire.

No. However, middle school results are available for some states, districts, territories, and tribes that have elected to conduct a middle school YRBS in their jurisdiction. Middle school YRBS results are available on Youth Online.

No. The National YRBS was not designed to produce representative estimates at the state level.

This type of analysis has significant limitations and should be conducted with caution. A state-level characteristic, such as the presence of a state law, can be added to a regression model as an exogenous (independent) variable and will yield statistically correct estimates. However, it is important to fully consider the context of these estimates.

The National YRBS was not designed to produce representative estimates at the state level. The number of students chosen from each state varies considerably and is usually too small to generate precise or stable state-level estimates. In addition, fewer than 50 states are included in the national sample each cycle.

Researchers should fully investigate the implications and interpretations of this type of analysis and should understand the sampling design of the National YRBS and how that design might influence their results. See Methodology of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System for more information about the National YRBS sampling design.

No. The National YRBS was not designed to produce estimates by urban or rural status. In the National YRBS, primary sampling units (PSUs) are selected based on urban and non-urban definitions, but it does not necessarily follow that a non-urban area is rural. Urban status indicates only that the PSU was one of the largest 54 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). Non-urban indicates that the PSU was not one of the largest 54 MSAs. It could be rural but is not necessarily rural. See Methodology of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System for more information about the National YRBS sampling design.

The YRBSS questionnaires are in the public domain, and no permission is required to use them. You may download the questionnaires at no charge.

See A Guide to Conducting Your Own Youth Risk Behavior Survey for information useful to communities and groups that plan to conduct their own YRBS.

CDC provides data processing assistance only to states, territories, and local school districts that it funds directly to conduct a YRBSS. However, information on how the data are processed can be found on the Methods page and in the Methodology of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System.

CDC has funding available for all 50 states, a small number of territories, and large urban school districts during each 5-year funding cycle.

Research indicates that data of this nature may be gathered as credibly from adolescents as from adults. Internal reliability checks help identify the small percentage of students who falsify their answers. To obtain truthful answers, survey administrators must ensure that students perceive the survey as important and know that procedures have been developed to protect their privacy and allow for anonymous participation.

The Methodology of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System contains a description of most of the methodological studies conducted to date on the YRBSS questionnaires or YRBSS data collection procedures. In addition, the list of YRBSS MMWR publications and journal articles contains the actual journal articles describing the results of these studies.

These methodological studies include test-retest reliability studies on the 1991 and 1999 versions of the questionnaire; a study assessing the validity of self-reported height and weight; a study assessing the effect of changing the race or ethnicity question; a study examining how varying honesty appeals, question wording, and data-editing protocols affect prevalence estimates; and a study examining how varying the mode and setting of survey administration affects prevalence estimates.