Connecticut’s open data portal – data.ct.gov – has turned 10 years old. The portal is intended to make data collected by state government more easily accessible to the public and promote greater government transparency.
“The Connecticut Open Data Portal is helpful to our state’s residents, businesses, and governments as we can make data instantly available and customizable to the user,” Gov. Ned Lamont said. “By providing data online, we have been able to accurately report spending and share data about economic development, public health, sustainability, and address historical inequities. These efforts continue to receive national recognition, and I look forward to seeing the continuation of these open data efforts going forward.”
Launched in 2014, the Connecticut Open Data Portal now hosts more than 550 datasets submitted by various state agencies and more than 30 data stories that highlight trends in data. The governor’s office noted that over the last year, the portal has served more than 175,000 users.
The governor’s office also highlighted some of the newest datasets added to the portal over the last year:
- An American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funding and Project Inventory Dashboard that provides detail on ARPA investments, including details on ARPA-funded projects, the status of allocated funds, and spending progress;
- A State of Connecticut Executive Branch Workforce Dashboard that provides data on trends in state workforce, including the number of executive branch employees and filled vacancies;
- A Municipal Fiscal Indicators Dashboard that contains data on the fiscal health of Connecticut’s 169 towns and cities; and
- A Housing Data Hub that contains data on housing trends in Connecticut.
To help improve the data portal, the state recently released the Connecticut Open Data Handbook for editors and publishers on the Connecticut Open Data Portal and has provided training and screencasts on topics including data wrangling and storytelling, and developing accessible data visualizations. The state has also worked with data owners to clearly document the data on the Open Data Portal. The governor’s office said their efforts have reduced the percent of datasets missing metadata from 94 percent in August 2023 to under 20 percent currently.
