A display device and a method for driving the display device are provided, which pertain to the technical field of display, and can reduce the negative influence of data lines in a RGBW display device on the light transmittance. The display device comprises a display panel having a plurality of pixel units arranged as an array. Each of the pixel units comprises three adjacent pixels located in the same column, and each of the pixels comprises a first color sub pixel, a second color sub pixel, a third color sub pixel, and a fourth color sub pixel. In each of the pixel units, the three fourth color sub pixels each share a corresponding data line with a first color sub pixel, a second color sub pixel and a third color sub pixel respectively of different pixels. The present disclosure can be applied to display devices, such as liquid crystal television, liquid crystal display device, mobile phone, and tablet PC, etc.