In July 1991, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a set of 18 health status indicators, in response to Objective 22.1 of Healthy People 2000. CDC's goal was to develop a set of health status indicators that would: 1) be small in number, 2) allow a comprehensive measure of community health, 3) include general and specific measures of community health, 4) be measurable at federal, state and local levels, 5) be readily and uniformly understandable, 6) be measurable using available data, 7) imply specific interventions compelling action, and 8) be outcome oriented.

The 18 indicators developed by CDC are presented here with the goal of giving a snapshot of how Anchorage compares to Alaska and to the U.S. using standard definitions defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 18 indicators are used with two exceptions: first, "mortality from other unintentional injuries" was added because of the magnitude of that problem in Alaska, and second, the "incidence of primary and secondary syphilis" was excluded because there are too few cases in Alaska to have a meaningful measurement.