opendataphilly.org

What is OpenDataPhilly?

OpenDataPhilly is a catalog of open data for the Philadelphia region. It serves as the official open data repository for the City of Philadelphia while also gathering datasets published by other organizations in the area, so a single search can span municipal and non-municipal sources.

What you can find

The catalog is organized into broad categories, which makes it useful for quickly narrowing a search:

• Arts / Culture / History
• Boundaries
• Budget / Finance
• Economy
• Education
• Elections / Politics
• Environment
• Food
• Health / Human Services
• Parks / Recreation
• Planning / Zoning
• Public Safety
• Real Estate / Land Records
• Transportation

Who it is for

It suits several kinds of users: residents checking conditions in their neighborhood, journalists looking for local figures, students and researchers needing regional data, and developers or civic technologists building maps and tools. Because it mixes city data with regional contributions, it is often a better starting point than a single agency website when your question crosses departmental lines.

A practical next step

If you have a specific question, browse by the category closest to it rather than searching the whole catalog. For example, a question about property conditions points to Real Estate / Land Records, while a question about bus or bike routes points to Transportation. From there, check the dataset's date range and geographic coverage before relying on it, since regional datasets may not align with city boundaries or current years.

For datasets outside Philadelphia, comparable city and regional portals exist, such as NYC Open Data and Data.gov for federal data.

How can I find and download a specific dataset on OpenDataPhilly?

OpenDataPhilly organizes its catalog by category, so the fastest route to a specific dataset is usually to start from the category that matches your topic, then scan the dataset list for the exact title. The categories shown on the site include Arts / Culture / History, Boundaries, Budget / Finance, Economy, Education, Elections / Politics, Environment, Food, Health / Human Services, Parks / Recreation, Planning / Zoning, Public Safety, Real Estate / Land Records, and Transportation.

A practical search path

1. Decide which category your dataset most likely sits in. A property parcel file belongs under Real Estate / Land Records; a list of city contracts belongs under Budget / Finance.
2. Open that category and read the dataset names and short descriptions rather than guessing at file names.
3. When you find a likely match, open its dataset page. That page is where the actual download options live — typically a direct file download or a link to the publishing organization's own portal.
4. If the category browse does not surface it, use the site's search function with a distinctive term (an agency name, a street, a program name) instead of a generic word like "data."

What to expect when you download

Because OpenDataPhilly is a catalog, not every file is hosted on the same server. Some datasets are served directly; others point to the department or nonprofit that maintains them. That distinction matters in practice:

• Direct downloads are usually the simplest — one file, one format.
• Redirected datasets may require you to accept a separate terms page or navigate another organization's site, and the update schedule can differ from the catalog entry.
• Formats vary across CSV, shapefile, and API endpoints. If you need to join datasets, check whether each one uses a shared geographic identifier or a common date field before you build anything on top of it.

For a concrete example: a researcher studying neighborhood tree cover would go to Environment or Parks / Recreation, open the relevant dataset page, download the file, and then check the "last updated" information on that page before drawing conclusions — a stale extract can quietly undermine an analysis.

A useful next step

Before downloading, write down the three things you need from the data: the geographic unit (address, census tract, ZIP), the time period, and the format your tools can read. Then match those against the dataset description. If a dataset page does not state its update frequency or geographic granularity, treat that as a reason to look for a companion dataset or contact the publishing organization rather than assuming the data covers your case.

For Philadelphia-specific context alongside the catalog, the City of Philadelphia's own open data pages and City of Philadelphia can clarify which department maintains a given file.

Which organizations besides the City of Philadelphia contribute datasets to OpenDataPhilly?

OpenDataPhilly does not name the contributing organizations on its homepage, so a list of specific non-city contributors can't be given from the page evidence alone. What the catalog does state is that it includes datasets from "many organizations in the region" alongside the City of Philadelphia's own repository. The practical way to identify them is to browse the catalog and read each dataset's source or attribution field, which is where the contributing organization is credited.

How to find the contributors yourself

• Open the full dataset list and use the category filters to narrow by topic.
• For any dataset of interest, check the attribution or source note on its detail page; that field identifies the organization that published it.
• Expect a mix of regional bodies: the categories suggest contributors work in transportation, public safety, health and human services, planning and zoning, real estate and land records, elections, environment, and arts and culture.

Who this matters for

• Researchers and journalists who need to cite an original publisher rather than the catalog.
• Civic technologists building apps who want to know how often a source is refreshed and who to contact about errors.
• Community groups checking whether their neighborhood is covered by a regional agency, a nonprofit, or only city departments.

If your question is really "does organization X publish here?", the fastest check is a site search on the catalog for that organization's name; the results will show whether it appears as a source. For a broader view of open data beyond Philadelphia, compare with Data.gov for federal datasets, OpenDataPhilly for the regional catalog itself, and state or county portals where a dataset's true owner sits outside the city.

What kind of analysis can I do with OpenDataPhilly data, such as for real estate or transportation?

OpenDataPhilly supports two broad kinds of analysis: descriptive mapping of what exists where, and comparative or trend analysis that combines several datasets. Because it is both the official City of Philadelphia repository and a regional catalog, you can work at neighborhood, city and metro scale, and you can mix municipal layers with datasets contributed by other regional organizations.

Real estate and land

• Parcel and ownership work: Real Estate / Land Records data lets you look at property boundaries, ownership patterns and land use, then join them to Planning / Zoning layers to see how current use relates to zoning.
• Value and market context: Combine property records with Budget / Finance or Economy indicators to compare assessed values, tax-related figures or economic conditions across neighborhoods.
• Neighborhood change: Layer real estate data with Boundaries and Planning / Zoning to track where redevelopment or rezoning is concentrated, or to screen sites by zoning and parcel size.
• Equity questions: Pair land records with Health / Human Services or Environment layers to examine whether environmental burdens or service gaps cluster in particular blocks or council districts.

Transportation

• Access and coverage: Transportation layers are well suited to measuring distance to transit stops, station density per capita, or gaps in service for specific neighborhoods.
• Commuting and equity: Overlay transportation with Economy and Education data to study job access, commute patterns or how transit reach differs across income groups.
• Safety and planning: Combine transportation with Public Safety to map crash or incident locations, or with Planning / Zoning to assess how corridors align with future development.
• Cross-cutting work: Environment data supports air quality or bike/pedestrian analysis, while Parks / Recreation helps measure green space access along routes.

Practical notes

Most of this analysis happens in GIS or data tools rather than on the site itself. Expect to download datasets, check their geographic units (parcel, census tract, council district) and confirm update dates before joining layers, since mismatched boundaries are the most common source of errors. A useful first step is to pick one question — such as "which parcels near transit stops are zoned for higher density?" — and pull only the three or four layers it needs. Philadelphia's official open data program is also published through City of Philadelphia, and regional and national context is available from Data.gov.

Can I use OpenDataPhilly datasets in my own app or research project, and what are the licensing terms?

Yes. OpenDataPhilly is a catalog of open data for the Philadelphia region, and it is the official open data repository for the City of Philadelphia, with additional datasets contributed by other regional organizations. Its stated purpose is to make that data browsable and reusable, so using the datasets in an app, analysis or research project is within the intended use.

Licensing: check each dataset, not the catalog

The catalog itself is a finding aid, not a single license. It aggregates records from many publishers, and each publisher sets its own terms. In practice you will encounter a mix:

• Public domain / no restrictions — common for City of Philadelphia open data, where you can typically use, modify and redistribute freely.
• Attribution licenses — you may use the data commercially or non-commercially but must credit the source (for example, "City of Philadelphia" or the named organization).
• Non-commercial or share-alike terms — some regional nonprofits and academic contributors restrict commercial use or require derivative works to carry the same license.
• Custom or unclear terms — a minority of records may have vague or missing license fields, which means you should treat reuse as unresolved until you confirm with the publisher.

Practical next steps

1. Open the specific dataset page and read its license and attribution fields before downloading.
2. Record the license, publisher and retrieval date for every dataset you use — this is what makes attribution and later audits easy.
3. If the license is missing or ambiguous, contact the listed publisher directly rather than assuming open reuse.
4. For research, keep a short data provenance note in your methods section listing dataset names, publishers and access dates.

Example scenario

Suppose you are building a neighborhood dashboard that combines zoning, public safety and real estate records. You might find that the zoning layer carries an attribution-only license, the public safety data is public domain, and a real estate dataset from a regional partner is non-commercial. Your dashboard could ship as a free public tool, but a paid version would need the non-commercial layer swapped out or separately licensed.

For related regional and municipal open data, see City of Philadelphia and Data.gov.

How do I request a new dataset or report a data quality issue on OpenDataPhilly?

OpenDataPhilly's catalog describes itself as the official open data repository for the City of Philadelphia and also a home for datasets from other regional organizations. That dual role matters for requests: a dataset published by a City department is generally handled through the City's own open data process, while a dataset contributed by a nonprofit, university, or other regional group is usually maintained by that organization.

Requesting a new dataset

Start by browsing the catalog by category — the site groups data under headings such as Boundaries, Budget / Finance, Education, Elections / Politics, Environment, Health / Human Services, Planning / Zoning, Public Safety, Real Estate / Land Records, and Transportation. This tells you whether something close already exists under a different name before you ask for a new one.

If nothing fits, identify the publisher. For a City-held dataset, the request belongs with the municipal open data program rather than the catalog itself; for a regional dataset, contact the organization named as the source. A useful request states the specific dataset, the agency or organization that holds it, the geographic scope and time period, and the decision or analysis you want to support. Vague asks like "more data about housing" are much harder to route than "parcel-level vacant property notifications for the last three years."

Reporting a data quality issue

Data quality problems fall into a few distinct types, and naming the type speeds up the fix:

• Wrong or outdated values — a record contradicts a known fact, or the file is several years behind.
• Missing fields or blank rows — a column is empty or partially populated.
• Broken file or link — a download fails, a format won't open, or a link points nowhere.
• Metadata problems — the description, update frequency, or column definitions don't match the file.
• Geographic or identifier errors — coordinates fall outside the city, or IDs don't join to related datasets.

Include the dataset name, the exact field or row, the value you expected, and how you found the problem. A screenshot or a short description of your query helps. Report it to the publishing organization, since the catalog is a directory rather than the originator of most records.

A practical workflow

1. Search the catalog by category and by keyword.
2. Note the publishing organization listed for the dataset.
3. Send your request or correction to that organization, with specifics.
4. If the dataset is City-published, route it through the City's open data channels.
5. For context on how other cities structure these processes, see Bloomington Open Data and Chicago Data Portal.

The main trade-off is speed versus accuracy: a quick email to a general inbox may sit unread, while a well-scoped request to the named publisher is more likely to be actioned but requires you to do a little detective work first.