• America's Health Rankings 2008 (United Health Foundation)

This report, produced in partnership with the American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention, analyzes the health status of the nation state by state. State by State Snapshots has rankings of risk factors like smoking, vehicle deaths, crime, poverty, and lack of health insurance. It also ranks outcomes like death from specific diseases, limited activity days, and other factors. A written summary discusses challenges and disparities for the state. Rankings are shown for current and previous editions. Special Features include commentaries about the state of the nation's health and a list of traits shared by healthy communities.

• Centers for Disease Control

This is the Data and Statistics section of the CDC. It includes numerous links to all kinds of health data, including surveillance reports, laboratory information, and databases such as CDC Wonder, which organizes statistics by topic area; HAZDAT, a hazardous substances database, and WISQARS, a database of injury-related data.

• Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality

This government site provides links to information about the state's air quality and water quality, items targeted specifically to citizens, educators, and industries for discussions of current environmental issues aound the state.

• Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals

This government site includes a large amount of information and resources regarding health care within the state of Louisiana with particular emphasis on matters related to state government.

• National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)

NCHS is the nation's "principal health statistics agency." A good place to start is FASTATS A to Z. In this section, you can either select a state from the map to see statistics and links to additional sites about that state, or you can search by subject (disease, health service, birth, death, state name, and many other topics). Comprehensive statistics for the U.S. and links to other sites are also available.

• National Healthcare Disparities Report (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)

This annual report provides an overview of differences in health care among various ethnic, racial and socioeconomic groups in the U.S. population as a whole and in certain priority populations, and it also tracks the progress toward eliminating these disparities.

• National Healthcare Quality Report (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)

This annual report measures the quality of health care in America, focusing on the quality of service for seven conditions - cancer, diabetes, end-stage renal disease, heart disease, HIV and AIDS, mental health disorders, and respiratory disease.

• State Health Facts Online

Sponsored by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundations, this site is an excellent source of data comparing each state to the nation as a whole.