Many adolescent health-related indicators are derived from nationally representative household surveys, such the DHS, the MICS (although the latter usually does not include adolescent boys and young men) or school-based health surveys, such as the Global School-Based Student Health Survey, the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey and the Global Youth Tobacco Survey. While surveys such as DHS and MICS do not explicitly focus on adolescents, older adolescent girls are usually included, and sometimes boys ages 15–19 years are included. 

Another important source for data on adolescents is CRVS systems. A well-functioning CRVS system registers all births and deaths, issues birth and death certificates and compiles and disseminates vital statistics, including information on cause of death. It may also record marriages and divorces. 

National health information systems (NHIS) serve multiple users and a wide array of purposes that can be summarized as the “generation of information to enable decision-makers at all levels of the health system to identify problems and needs, make evidence-based decisions on health policy and allocate scarce resources optimally”. They include routine health information systems, which regularly collect and report data from health facilities. 

Health policy surveys are also relevant to adolescent health and well-being. An example at the school level is the Global School Health Policies and Practices Survey, which enables countries to generate credible school-level data describing school health policies and practices nationwide.