This year’s Open Data Day (ODD) was a huge success. Almost 300 events registered worldwide, with 60 countries participating in 15+ different languages.

Before starting the #ODDStories 2024 series, with reports from events around the world, we’ve just finalised a report with the main figures and data on the 2024 edition and we can’t say it any other way: 💜 A HEARTFELT THANKS to everyone in the open data community! 💙

Some lessons learned from this year’s data:

• Open Data Day goes far beyond the days of the event. Our community continues to promote open data beyond the official dates.

• Communities and countries in the Global South have shown a great appetite for open data and a growing mobilisation for open data for development.
  
• Our community members prioritise real interactions at face-to-face and both hyperlocal and global events.
  
• The global open data community is growing: +55.9% events in 2024 and +9.4% members compared to last year.
  
• Open Data Day is a truly diverse initiative in terms of gender, power, levels of knowledge and geography.
  

We at the Open Knowledge Foundation want to thank the co-organisers from the Open Knowledge Network – Jokkolabs Banjul (Gambia), Open Knowledge Germany, Open Knowledge Nepal, and Open Knowledge Ghana – and the sponsors of the mini-grants – Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), Datopian, and Link Digital.

Let’s move on to 2025 with an even bigger, more diverse and impactful event!

About Open Data Day

Open Data Day (ODD) is an annual celebration of open data all over the world. Groups from many countries create local events on the day where they will use open data in their communities.

As a way to increase the representation of different cultures, since 2023 we offer the opportunity for organisations to host an Open Data Day event on the best date within a one-week period. In 2024, a total of 287 events happened all over the world between March 2nd-8th, in 60+ countries using 15 different languages.

All outputs are open for everyone to use and re-use.

In 2024, Open Data Day was also a part of the HOT OpenSummit ’23-24 initiative, a creative programme of global event collaborations that leverages experience, passion and connection to drive strong networks and collective action across the humanitarian open mapping movement

For more information, you can reach out to the Open Knowledge Foundation team by emailing opendataday@okfn.org. You can also join the Open Data Day Google Group to ask for advice or share tips and get connected with others.