Data Methods

Demographics

On this Dashboard, values for the EHE indicators are stratified. At the national level, users can stratify by the following demographic characteristics: age, race/ethnicity, assigned sex at birth and transmission category (for incidence, knowledge of status, diagnoses, linkage to care, and HIV viral suppression). For gender, national data can be stratified for diagnoses, linkage to care, and HIV viral suppression. Users can also stratify by state/territory and counties for the following demographic characteristics: age, race/ethnicity, assigned sex at birth (for diagnoses, linkage to care, HIV viral suppression, and PrEP coverage). Overall total values (unstratified) are presented at the national, state/territory, and county levels for all indicators.

Age Groups

The data shown on this site are only for adults and adolescents. Data for all indicators include persons aged ≥13 years except PrEP estimates which are for persons ≥16 years as these numbers are calculated using national pharmacy data from the IQVIA Real World Data–Longitudinal Prescriptions database (and not NHSS, which includes persons ≥13 years). For diagnosis data, age is based on the person’s age at HIV diagnosis. For data on persons living with diagnosed HIV, the age is based on the person’s age as of December 31 of the queried year. Ten-year age groups are used with HIV surveillance data to ensure data security and confidentiality.

Race/ethnicity

Data are generally grouped into the following racial/ethnic categories (each race category is non-Hispanic): American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, White and multiracial. Hispanic/Latino persons can be of any race.

PrEP data has different race/ethnicity categories due to the source of the data. The categories for PrEP are: Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Other, and White.

Some HIV prevalence cases are missing information on the individual’s race/ethnicity. These unknown racial/ethnic groups are not displayed. Therefore, if you summarize the data by race/ethnicity, they may not match the national totals overall.

Sex and Gender

Sex designations (male and female) on this Dashboard are based on a person’s sex assigned at birth. National-level data for all EHE indicators are stratified by assigned sex at birth. State/territory and county data are stratified by assigned sex at birth (diagnoses, linkage to care, HIV viral suppression, and PrEP coverage).

The term gender in this Dashboard refers to gender identity – a person’s internal understanding of their gender, or the gender with which a person identifies – and includes the following categories: man, woman, transgender woman, transgender man, and additional gender identity. Additional gender identity examples include "bigender," "gender queer," and "two-spirit." For gender, national data can be stratified for diagnoses, linkage to care, and HIV viral suppression. Gender is not stratified at the state/territory or county level.

Transgender is an umbrella term that is used to identify persons whose sex assigned at birth does not match current gender identity or expression. Transgender woman includes individuals who were assigned "male" sex at birth but have ever identified as a woman. Transgender man includes individuals who were assigned "female" sex at birth but have ever identified as a man. In May 2013, CDC issued guidance to state and local programs on methods for collecting data on transgender persons and working with transgender-specific data. Information on gender identity is still not consistently collected or documented in the data sources used by HIV surveillance reporting jurisdictions. Thus, HIV data by gender remain limited. HIV surveillance personnel collect data on gender identity, when available, from sources such as case report forms submitted by health care or HIV testing providers and medical records, or by matching with other health department databases (e.g., Ryan White program data).

Transmission category

This is the term for the classification of cases that summarizes a person’s possible HIV risk factors; the summary classification results from selecting, from the presumed hierarchical order of probability, the one risk factor most likely to have resulted in HIV transmission. The exception is men who had sexual contact with other men and injected drugs; this group makes up a separate transmission category.

Transmission category data have been statistically adjusted to account for missing transmission category; therefore, values may not sum to column total.

Transmission category is classified based on a hierarchy of the risk factors most likely responsible for HIV transmission; classification is determined based on the person’s sex assigned at birth.

Persons whose transmission category is classified as male-to-male sexual contact include men who report sexual contact with other men (i.e., homosexual contact) and men who report sexual contact with both men and women (i.e., bisexual contact).

Persons whose transmission category is classified as injection drug use (IDU) are persons who injected non-prescribed drugs.

Heterosexual contact includes persons who have ever had sexual contact with a person known to have, or with a risk factor for, HIV.

Other category includes other risk factors including, hemophilia, blood transfusion, perinatal exposure, and risk factor not reported or not identified.

Data Sources

• Terms, Definitions, and Calculations Used in CDC HIV Surveillance Publications. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Terms, definitions, and calculations used in CDC HIV surveillance publications. Updated 2022. Accessed May 24, 2023.
• Harrison KM, Kajese T, Hall HI, Song R. Risk factor redistribution of the national HIV/AIDS surveillance data: an alternative approach. Public Health Rep 2008;123:618–27. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18828417/