Open Data

Open government data is a valuable resource that can be used by citizens and businesses of the state to fuel entrepreneurship, innovation, and scientific discovery.  Data is "open" when it is offered free of charge, without restrictive licenses, with good descriptive "metadata" so you can understand it, and is searchable and downloadable in a common, structured format readily usable by computer code.

With ingenuity and access, any member of the public can dream up and create an application that is commercially or recreationally useful to others. Publishing open data in open formats is a transformational step, making government transparency actionable by the people who the government has been created to serve. It increases government transparency, effectiveness, and accountability, allowing government agencies as well as citizens to browse, interpret trends, and draw attention to issues with greater efficiency.

Where's the data?

• Click HERE for GIS data from Washington's geospatial community. It offers  professional grade geospatial data, managed by a community governance group, with enterprise data standards to back it up.
• Fiscal.wa.gov offers citizens and analysts data and insights into state spending, budgets and staffing.
• Results Washington is data-driven for performance assessment. This is where the Governor goes to see the whole spectrum of programs and prospects.
• Data.wa.gov completes the picture, with citizen-accessible tabular data, data visualizations like charts, graphs and maps, and a simple but powerful interface for programmers and data professionals in large and small organizations.  This is the preferred and general-purpose hub of the state's Open Data initiative.