Data Governance and Analytics

The Analytics Service is home to the National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics (NCVAS). It is VA’s hub for providing analytics on the current and future Veteran population and usage of VA programs to support evidence-building for planning and decision-making. The Analytics Service integrates data assets from across the department to be used for enterprise program evaluation and reporting, provide data products focused on the Veteran population and their use of VA benefits and services, population projections, and general information on the VA footprint. NCVAS provides internal analysis as well as publicly available reports. The Analytics Service is led by the VA Statistical Official who also advises on statistical techniques and champions the use and re-use of authoritative data for both operations and analytics.

The Governance Service is responsible for the management and administration of the VA Data Governance Council (DGC) and its sub-councils, the development of data policy, and oversight of the implementation and compliance with data and information policies and standards. The Governance Service coordinates and oversees VA data collections efforts through the Paperwork Reduction Act Program. It also provides guidance and oversight to the management and documentation of VA’s data through the Data Stewardship Program and the publication of VA data assets through the Open Data program. The Governance Service is also responsible for DGA’s mission management which includes contracting, communications, and privacy services.

• National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics—For more information on reports, surveys, or statistics regarding the Veteran population, please e-mail vancvas@va.gov.
• VA Open Data—The home of VA’s implementation of the Open Data Act which requires Federal Agencies to make data ‘open by default’ except when prohibited from disclosure for being personally identifiable information or subject to intellectual property rights public whenever possible. The VA’s Open Data Website hosts hundreds of data collections for public access to include VA State Summaries which are annual summaries of the Veteran Population & VA Facilities by State. Questions regarding VA’s Open Data site and requests for additional data collections to be made available should be routed to oitopendata@va.gov.
• VA Benefits and Health Care Utilization (Pocket Cards) – Quarterly Summary of the State of VA by the numbers.
• PACT Analytics – Analysis of the VA Implementation of the PACT Act (Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxins).