A dataset is composed of metadata, that is, data that describes its content in more detail, and of one or more data resources.

Our service provides a growing collection of datasets on different topics. You can browse all the datasets in our service or search for datasets related to themes that you are interested in. For example, you can find out which names have been the most popular ones in Finland, what the state has spent money on and the current municipal divisions.

Data resources

Data resources contain the actual data of the dataset.
For example, resources may contain:

• Similar data from different years: Data from the OpenProcurement.fi service contains a separate data resource for each year.
• Data that has been divided into sections: In the Digital and Population Data Services Agency’s dataset on Finnish names, first and last names have been divided into separate files.
• The same data in different file formats: The numbers of people using public transport in Helsinki are available both as a CSV table and an API. An API is often used to publish constantly changing data.

You can download the data resource of your choice for your own use by selecting Download or Open next to the resource.

Licenses

The license defines the terms and conditions under which the opened data may be used. Open data datasets are all licensed under an open licence, which means that anyone can use the data freely for any purpose.

We recommend the following licences for open data datasets: Creative Commons BY 4.0 or Creative Commons CC0 1.0. The main difference between the two licences is that data under the CC0 1.0 licence can be used without mentioning the original source of the data, whereas the CC BY 4.0 licence requires the original source to be mentioned when the data is used. The majority of the datasets found on our service have been licensed under one of these two licences.

On our website, you can also find showcases that use open data. They are examples of what open data can be used for and how we can all benefit from using it. Showcases include different mobile applications, visualisations and websites that use open data.

Open data is useful in many different areas. In our gallery, you will find applications that make getting around easier, visualisations of financial matters and examples of how population information can be used.

Open data makes it possible to create a better-functioning and more equal society for all of us.

If you have created a showcase that uses open data and would like to add it to our website, let us know about it. You can also tell us about showcases other than your own. We will contact the developer and add the showcase to our service.

You can narrow down the search in more detail by using the advanced search. With the advanced search, you can define the licence used for the dataset or the publishers whose datasets you want to find. You can also specify whether you want to search from the datasets, showcases, or both.

You can use the AND, OR and NOT search operators in the advanced search.

• Search operator AND: the search results will match both search words. A space also serves as an AND search operator.
  For example, invoices AND government retrieves datasets that contain the words government and invoices
• Search operator OR: the search results will match one or both search words.
  For example, invoices OR government results in datasets corresponding to both government and invoices.
• Search operator NOT: the search results will not contain one of the search words.
  For example, invoices NOT government retrieves all invoice datasets that do not contain the search word government.