Data Resources and Integrated Visualization Ecosystem (DRIVE) Overview

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) Data Resources and Integrated Visualization Ecosystem (DRIVE) is an interactive data visualization dashboard that integrates several measures from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) across multiple population groups at national and state levels. DRIVE is a user-friendly tool that provides dynamic data visualizations for socioeconomic indicators and non-medical drivers of health. Unique from other data tools, DRIVE allows data to be explored and visualized for specific race and ethnicity groups.

HOW DO I USE THE DRIVE DASHBOARD?

DRIVE is an interactive online dashboard that presents data visualizations (i.e., bar charts) to observe the distribution of factors (Education, Housing, Finance, Language, and Other Resources) within populations and regions.

On the DRIVE main page, select any of the five factors and a combination of a population (All Populations, or a specific population) and a region (United States, or a specific State or the District of Columbia). DRIVE will produce a report page based on your selected factor, population, and region. The report will include data visualizations for selected metrics.

Within a report page, you can also compare a metric across two populations or regions.

Please refer to the DRIVE User Guide for more guidance.

WHAT MEASURES ARE INCLUDED IN DRIVE?

WHAT CAN I DO WITH THE DRIVE DASHBOARD AND DATA?

DRIVE can be used to understand demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of population groups. Health status and health outcomes have been shown to be influenced by demographic and socioeconomic factors. Exploring these factors may help with understanding possible risk factors for or contributors to health issues experienced by particular population groups or in particular states. DRIVE can be used to inform research, strategic planning, program design, and evaluation related to public health issues.

Please review the DRIVE Case Studies for examples on how to use the DRIVE dashboard and data.

You can download the DRIVE dataset for further analysis from this location. The DRIVE Data Dictionary is available here.

WHAT ARE THE DATA SOURCES AND TECHNICAL NOTES FOR DRIVE?

DRIVE integrates several measures from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) across detailed race and ethnicity groups. All metrics in DRIVE use publicly available data from the ACS Selected Population Profile. Refer to the DRIVE Data Dictionary for a complete list of DRIVE metrics.

For each measure, ACS reports an estimate along with a 95% margin of error (MOE). In this application, the MOE is represented as a confidence interval and displayed using error bars. For more information on ACS margins of error and statistical significance, please see the Census Bureau’s Technical Documentation.

Data on some population groups are not available for every state. If the population you are looking for is not available for a certain region, this may be due to ACS data suppression. ACS is required to protect the privacy of individuals and ensure that their personal information is not disclosed. To protect individuals’ privacy, ACS does not release detailed information on groups and places with very small populations.

To protect the privacy of individuals and ensure that their personal information is not disclosed, the ACS applies a process called data suppression. This means that if there are too few people in a specific category, such as a certain racial identity or ethnic background, the ACS will not release detailed information about that group. Because of this, data on some racial and ethnic groups are not available in every state. Data suppression methods depend on a variety of factors; for more information, see the U.S. Census Bureau’s documentation.

HOW WAS DRIVE DEVELOPED?

The HHS Office of Minority Health Data Resources and Integrated Visualization Ecosystem (DRIVE) was developed by OMH and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Geospatial Research, Analysis, and Services Program (CDC/ATSDR GRASP). Through a suite of data visualizations, DRIVE provides information on socioeconomic indicators and non-medical drivers of health across many race and ethnicity groups.

The mission of HHS OMH is to provide national leadership, resources, and coordination to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations and American Indians and Alaska Natives and eliminate health disparities.

CDC/ATSDR GRASP is a team of public health and geospatial science, technology, visualization, and analysis experts. The GRASP mission is to provide leadership, expertise, and education in the application of geography, geospatial science, and geographic information systems (GIS) to public health research and practice. The information presented in this document is disseminated by OMH (not CDC), and it should not be construed as CDC’s determination or policy.

Suggested citations

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health. Data Resources and Integrated Visualization Ecosystem, 2025.
• U.S. Census Bureau. Selected Population Profile in the United States. American Community Survey, ACS 1-Year Estimates Selected Population Profiles, Table S0201, 2024, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSSPP1Y2024.S0201?q=S0201.