Anyone can benefit from open data. For example, you can use open data to explore topics that you are interested in, use open data as material for research, or download datasets for your own use and utilise them in activities such as application development.

Opening data, which means making it available for everyone to use, promotes the openness and transparency of the public administration. It therefore benefits all citizens. Open data also promotes democracy, as anyone can view information such as the purchases made in central government. Public administration is opening large amounts of data for everyone to use, partly because this is required by legislation.

By using open data, we can save money and create more efficient and better-quality services for all citizens. Open data can be used to create new services that would not otherwise be possible, at least not for free. For example, different services related to mobility take advantage of open data. Examples of such services are junat.net, which shows VR’s departure and arrival screens at railway stations, and sporat.fi, which shows the real-time locations of HSL’s trams on a map. In addition, open data provides new opportunities for innovation and as a result creates new companies and new jobs.

Open Data service for citizens

Anyone can benefit from Open Data. Browsing and downloading datasets for personal use is free of charge and does not require registration.

On Open Data, you can find a growing number of different openly available datasets.
You can browse the datasets available on our service or search for datasets using interesting keywords or categories. You can also download data for your own use free of charge. Some of the most popular datasets in our service are Finnish names, names of Finnish municipalities and Finnish War Victims in the Second World War.

On the Statistics page you will find different reports on our service, such as information on the most popular datasets and the most downloaded data.

Several practical examples on how to use open data are available under Showcases. You may even find a new favourite application! Most of the showcases available in the gallery are free of charge. If you have created an application or other showcase that uses open data, you can add it to the Open Data showcase gallery.