Awesome Open Government Data Switzerland

A manually curated list of Open Government Data (OGD) portals, websites, APIs, tools and other related resources in Switzerland. Relevant links to international websites are listed as well.

Contents

• Data Portals
• Data Sources
• Geo Data
• Linked Open Data
• APIs
• Organizations
• Newsletters
• Podcasts
• Miscellaneous
• Media
• Social Media
• International

Data Portals

Portals and data shops that provide access to Swiss Open Government Data. Listed in this section are «true» data shops rather than websites with download links only.

National data portals

• opendata.swiss - Central catalog of Swiss Open Government Data, operated by the Federal Statistical Office (BFS). Most important entry point to all things OGD in Switzerland.
• BFS STAT-TAB - This interactive database of the Federal Statistical Office provides detailed statistical data and enables simple, individual data queries. The tables produced can be exported in various formats.
• Schweizer Parlament - Open Data and web services of Swiss Parliament.
• Schweizerische Nationalbank SNB - Swiss National Bank data portal.
• SBB - Swiss Federal Railways data portal.
• SBB - Open transport data provided by SBB.
• Swiss Tourism Data - The portal is part of the National Data Infrastructure for Tourism (NaDIT) project. It serves as the catalogue of metadata of the most important data sources for Swiss tourism.
• Swisscom - Open data portal of former Swiss national Telco.
• COVID19 data - COVID-19 data provided by the Federal Office of Public Health BAG. New data portal here.

Cantonal data portals

• Aargau
• Basel Stadt
• Basel Land
• Luzern
• Schwyz
• St. Gallen - Cantonal open data portal.
• St. Gallen - Data shop of the Fachstelle Statistik St. Gallen.
• Thurgau
• Zürich
• Zürich «Gemeindeportrait» – Web application providing a comprehensive set of indicators which can be exported to various formats.

City-level data portals

• Zürich City – [GitHub]
• Zürich Tourismus

Data sources

Selected government websites that provide downloadable data (rather than being a full-featured data shop).

National

• Bundesamt für Gesundheit BAG - Federal Office of Public Health.
• Versorgungsatlas - Swiss Health Care Atlas provided by BAG and Swiss Health Observatory. Public health data about more than 100 indicators.
• Agrarmarktdaten - Comprehensive data portal provided by the Federal Office for Agriculture. The portal provides ongoing information and data on current market events in the various agricultural and food markets. You will find price and quantity information along the value chain from production to consumption.
• Agrarbericht - Agricultural data provided by the Federal Office for Agriculture.
• Schweizer Nährwertdatenbank - The Swiss Food Composition Database contains information on the composition of foods that are available in Switzerland. The database is operated by the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office FSVO.
• arbeit.swiss - Data portal of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
• Bundesamt für Energie BFE - Federal Office of Energy.
• Bundesamt für Sozialversicherungen BSV - Federal Social Security Office.
• Bundesamt für Umwelt BAFU - Federal Office for the Environment.
• Eidgenössische Steuerverwaltung - Federal Tax Administration.
• Eidgenössisches Institut für Geistiges Eigentum IGE - Federal Institute of Intellectual Property.
• Staatssekretariat für Migration SEM - State Secretariat for Migration.
• Fedlex – Publikationsplattform des Bundesrechts - Publication platform for federal law.
• Konjunkturforschungsstelle ETH Zürich
• FORS SWISSUbase - Cross-disciplinary data repository for Swiss universities.
• Schweizerischer Nationalfonds SNF - Swiss National Science Foundation. GitHub repositories with SNF's data stories here.
• Unfallversicherung UVG
• Zentraler Firmenindex ZEFIX - API here.
• Amtsblattportal - Official Gazettes Portal. A publishing centre for entities which publish official and commercially relevant publications in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SOGC) and in Official Cantonal Gazettes. Data can be imported and exported using a REST API too. 
• MeteoSwiss - MeteoSwiss will make data publicly available in 2025. See policy and background information regarding this OGD initiative - [GitHub].

Cantonal and city level

• Kanton Basel Stadt
• Kanton Basel Land
• Kanton Bern
• Stadt Bern
• Kanton Fribourg
• Kanton Genf - alternatively here.
• Kanton Graubünden
• Kanton Jura
• Stadt Lausanne
• Stadt Lugano
• Stadt Luzern
• Kanton Neuchâtel
• Kanton Schaffhausen
• Kanton Solothurn
• Stadt St. Gallen
• Kanton Tessin
• Kanton Thurgau – Thematic atlasses here.
• Kanton Uri
• Kanton Vaud
• Kanton Wallis
• Kanton Zug

Miscellaneous Data Sources

• Swiss official commune register - Register of all Swiss commune names, numbers and past mutations. (App)
• TERMDAT - The Federal Administration's terminology database (direct access). The EU's terminology database IATE can be accessed here.
• CERN - Open data portal of CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics.
• Open Energy Data CH - List of open datasets related to energy projects in Switzerland. See also this Open Data CH hackday contribution for the Energy Hackday 2020.
• Swissgrid - Energy data.
• entscheidsuche.ch - The freely accessible portal offers a search in all published court decisions of Swiss courts of all instances. GitHub scraper repository of the project here.
• Agristat - Statistical data of Schweizer Bauernverband (not an official government entity).
• Identitas Tierstatistik - Various datasets about livestock and companion animals in Switzerland.
• Jagdstatistik - Wild animal and hunting data from Bundesamt für Umwelt (BAFU).
• Sucht Schweiz - Statistical data of Sucht Schweiz (not an official government entity).
• ÖREB-Kataster - Extracts from the Cadastre of Public-law Restrictions on Landownership contain legally binding information about the most important public law restrictions that apply to a given plot of land.
• Memoriav Memobase - Searchable audiovisual collections of Swiss history.
• DODIS - Swiss diplomatic documents.
• Schweizer Landesmuseum
• Swiss Federal Archives - Documents about the history of Switzerland since 1798.
• Schweizerisches Idiotikon - Comprehensive documentation of the Swissgerman dialect (not an official government entity).
• Ortsnamen.ch - Comprehensive catalog of Swiss location names (project of Schweizerisches Idiotikon). Searchable map and REST-API available as well.
• Swiss Dwellings - Notable data set provided by Archilyse Open Data of 45,176 Swiss apartments (370,000 rooms) in ~3,100 buildings including their geometries, room typology as well as their visual, acoustical, topological and daylight characteristics.
• Meteotest Weather - Weather, climate and environmental data for digital applications (not a government entity, commercial). [API]

Geo Data

National

• swisstopo - National geo data portal, provided by the Federal Office of Topography (Bundesamt für Landestopographie).
• geoadmin - National geo data portal (Geoportal des Bundes).
• geocat - Geographic catalog. Operated by swisstopo. Provides geodata, geoservices, and models of federal offices, cantons, municipalities, research institutes, private companies, and more.
• geobasisdaten.ch - Geo data portal provided by the «Konferenz der kantonalen Geoinformations- und Katasterstellen». In Switzerland, the basic geodata catalog is a catalog-like listing of all geodata that have been collected by a legal authority by linking them to underlying legal enactments. In addition to a visualization of the geo data recorded by geo information law, its function is the database-specific assignment of responsible bodies and other legally relevant attributes. More information here.
• geodienste.ch - The intercantonal portal for obtaining geodata and services. Basic geodata are aggregated and made available under the responsibility of the cantons and municipalities.
• Geoportal.ch - Publication platform for Swiss geo data.
• BFS Plattform Statatlas - The Federal Statistical Office (BFS) offers a number of specialist atlases in addition to the central statistical atlas of Switzerland, which provide more detailed information on special areas of life from a statistical point of view. With the help of numerous interactive maps and graphics as well as the data behind them, a wide variety of geographical processes and relationships can be easily analyzed and evaluated.

Cantonal and city level

• Kantonale Geoportale - Overview of all cantonal geo portals.
• Kanton Aargau
• Kanton Appenzell Ausserrhoden
• Kanton Appenzell Innerrhoden
• Kanton Basel-Landschaft
• Kanton Basel-Stadt
• Kanton Bern
• Stadt Bern - Overview website
• Kanton Freiburg
• Kanton Genf
• Kanton Glarus
• Kanton Graubünden
• Kanton Jura
• Kanton Luzern
• Kanton Neuenburg
• Kantone Nidwalden Obwalden
• Kanton Schaffhausen
• Kanton Schwyz
• Kanton Solothurn
• Kanton St. Gallen
• Kanton Tessin
• Kanton Thurgau – Separate geo data shop here (requires registration).
• Kanton Uri - Geo portal with download option here.
• Kanton Waadt
• Kanton Wallis
• Kanton Zug
• Kanton Zürich
• Stadt Zürich

OpenStreetMap

• Swiss OpenStreetMap Association (SOSM) - Association that supports projects, people, companies and organisations in Switzerland that collect, use, process and distribute open and free geo-data.
• OpenStreetMap CH - OpenStreetMap dataset limited to Switzerland, and tools based on this reduced dataset (provided by SOSM). Hourly updated extracts here.
• BBBike's OSM download server - Data extracts from the OpenStreetMap project for more than 200 areas world wide in various formats. E.g. extracts for Zurich here.
• Geofabrik's OSM download server - Helpful OpenStreetMap data extracts for Switzerland (e.g. as ESRI shapefiles). Geofabrik's inspiring portfolio of geo data projects is definitely worth a look too.

Miscellaneous Geo Data

• GeoHarvester - Portal that brings together official Geo Data of Swiss government entities. [GitHub]
• geospatial-data-catalogs - A list of open geospatial datasets available on AWS, Earth Engine, Planetary Computer, NASA CMR, and STAC Index.
• GeoBeer Switzerland - GeoBeerCH is an informal meeting of people interested in geography, GIS, cartography and the latest technologies.
• mapplus.ch - Various Geo Data portals, viewers and links.

Linked Open Data

• LINDAS ecosystem overview - LINDAS (Linked Data Service) allows public administrations to publish their data in the form of Knowledge Graphs and make them accessible via https://lindas.admin.ch. The service is offered by the Swiss Federal Archives.
• Fedlex - Fedlex is the Federal Chancellery platform, on which federal legislation is published. It is primarily used to publish the Official Federal Gazette, the Official Compilation of Federal Legislation and the Classified Compilation of Federal Legislation, i.e. the consolidated version of federal legislation and international law texts.
• Federal Geoportal Linked Data - Linked Data Service of the Federal Geoportal.
• Stadt Zürich LOD
• Linked Data Meetup - The Linked Data Meetup is a collaboration between the Swiss Federal Archives (BAR) and the BFH's Public Sector Transformation Institute. The meetup is aimed at users of linked data, especially in the LINDAS environment.

APIs

• opendata.swiss
• Geo Admin
• Geo Admin STAC - API for Geo Admin's Spatial-Temporal Asset Catalog.
• Shared mobility
• Additional API documentation - More information for APIs provided by opendata.swiss, Geo Admin, and Shared mobility.
• Schweiz Tourismus
• SRGSSR - APIs of the publicly funded broadcaster in Switzerland.
• CKAN API documentation

Organizations, Initiatives, Events and Projects

• Statistical Institutions in Switzerland
• Korstat - Conference of the regional statistical offices in Switzerland.
• Statistiktage - Annual conference organized by Swiss Statistical Society and IMSD.
• Project Rosling - Swiss Confederation's «Project Rosling» aims to expand dialogue on data and statistics and deepen knowledge.
• opendata.ch - Swiss section of the Open Knowledge Foundation.
• opendata.ch - List of hackathons and events.
• Open Data Beer
• Prototype Fund - A funding program of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) that is managed and evaluated by the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany. Individuals and small teams (of coders, hackers, designers and more) can receive funding in order to test their ideas and develop open source applications in the areas of Civic Tech, Data Literacy, IT Security and Software Infrastructure.
• öffentlichkeitsgesetz.ch - Forum for transparency in administration.
• Parldigi - Parlamentarische Gruppe Digitale Nachhaltigkeit.
• DINACON - Conference for digital sustainability.
• Lobbywatch - Lobbywatch enables citizens and media professionals to find out what interests politicians in Bern represent. They offer their data as an open database for own evaluations.

Newsletters

• Bundesamt für Statistik
• Open Data CH

Podcasts

• Statistisch gesehen - Podcast of the Statistical Office Kanton Zürich.
• StatGespräch - Podcast of the Statistical Office Germany.

Miscellaneous

• Swiss OGD information
• Swiss OGD strategy
• Geschäftsstelle OGD BFS - This unit coordinates measures to implement the OGD strategy of the Swiss government and provides support to both data publisher and users.
• Digitale Verwaltung Schweiz
• National data management NaDB - The I14Y interoperability platform is available since June 2021 to promote the multiple use of data. All of the Federal Administration’s data collections are described here. In addition, a directory of electronic interfaces (APIs) will facilitate access to the actual data.
• Swiss DCAT Standard - eCH-0200 DCAT-Profile for Swiss data portals.
• adminR Code Base - A curated list of R packages & R code created and used by Swiss public institutions.
• Forschungsstelle Digitale Nachhaltigkeit Uni Bern - The Research Center for Digital Sustainability deals with key topics such as Digital Sustainability, Open Data, Linked Data, and Open Government. The center offers studies, research, services, support, and lectures (see below) in these areas.
• Open Data lectures Uni Bern - Comprehensive lectures about Open Data in Switzerland provided by Forschungsstelle Digitale Nachhaltigkeit of the University of Bern.

Media

Swiss data journalism teams.

• Neue Zürcher Zeitung Visuals Team - Repository that contains methods and code used for stories by NZZ Visuals.
• SRF Data - Code and data from SRF Data, the data-driven journalism unit of Swiss Radio and TV (SRF) [Publications and projects].
• Tamedia Data Desk - GitHub account of Tamedia's data journalism team [Projects of Ressort «Daten & Interaktiv»].

Social Media

• Twitter lists by Open Data CH

International

Interesting international data portals and websites

Data portals and sources

• European Union - Official data portal of the European Commission.
• Eurostat - Data portal of the Statistical Office of the European Union [Database] [Geo Data] [Statistical Atlas] [Chloropleth Map Generator] [Experimental Statistics].
• IATE - Terminology database of the EU.
• Germany - Germany's main OGD data portal.
• Germany - Database of the Federal Statistical Office of Germany [Experimental Statistics].
• Germany - Geo data shop of Germany's Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG).
• Germany - BKG's interactive geo data offering «geoportal.de».
• Germany - basemap.de is a group of cartographic products developed by the federal and state governments.
• France
• Italy
• Austria
• Liechtenstein
• Belgium
• Estonia
• Finland
• Greece
• Ireland
• Luxembourg
• Netherlands
• Portugal - Statistical Office.
• Portugal - Dataportal «Pordata»
• Rumania
• United Kingdom
• Ukraine
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Singapore
• Hongkong
• India
• United States
• Socrata's Open Data Network - Broad offering of US-American OGD data sets. API docs here.
• FRED Economic Data - Online database with hundreds of thousands of economic data time series from US-American, international, public, and private sources.
• NASDAQ Data Portal

Curated lists

• OKFN Data Portals [Website] [GitHub repo] - Very large and comprehensive list of data sources maintained by the Open Knowledge Foundation.
• Open Data Inception [Database] [Data Map] - Very large and comprehensive list of data sources maintained by the data portal vendor Opendatasoft. See this article for background information.
• Awesome Public Datasets - GitHub list with many more links to public government data sets.
• Awesome Transit - Community list of transit APIs, apps, datasets, research, and software.

Miscellaneous

• Open Data Handbook – Guides, case studies and resources for government and civil society on the «what, why & how» of open data. Provided by the Open Knowledge Foundation.
• bund.dev - «Bundesstelle für Open Data». Very active and influential non-governmental open data initiative [GitHub].
• Greenpeace Open Data Portal
• Code for Germany - A network of open government experts who work as volunteer city developers for sustainable digital change in politics and administration. Strong focus on Open Data, list of inspiring projects here.
• United Nations - Data portal of the UN.
• OECD - OECD data portal.
• OECD OGD information - OGD ranking of OECD.
• Worldbank - Data about Switzerland.
• Our World in Data - Data about Switzerland.
• Open Data Watch - Open data rankings and much more.
• Open Data Monitor

Contribute

Contributions are always welcome! Just open an issue or a pull request with your suggestions.