Aastatest

Aastatest is a data platform and open repository that aggregates and standardizes yearly statistics from multiple domains, including economy, population, environment, and social indicators. It aims to support reproducible research, transparent policymaking, and cross-domain analysis by providing time-stamped, versioned data in a consistent schema. The project emphasizes clear metadata, data provenance, and open access.

Data model and scope

Each indicator in Aastatest is a time series indexed by year and, where applicable, by geography such as country or region. Metadata includes the data source, units, measurement method, geographic scope, and data quality notes. Records are stored with versioning to preserve historical revisions. Data formats commonly used are JSON and CSV, and an API offers RESTful access to both individual indicators and bulk exports. The platform also supports data harmonization for comparability across sources and over time.

Access and licensing

Aastatest is designed as an open data resource. Core datasets are provided under permissive licenses intended to encourage reuse, with clear attribution requirements. An accompanying API documentation describes rate limits, authentication, and data retrieval methods. Users can download single indicators or full time-series pools, and can reference versioned snapshots in reproducible workflows.

History and governance

Development began in the mid-2010s by a coalition of statisticians, researchers, and open-data advocates. The project has undergone multiple major releases to improve standardization, metadata, and API capabilities. Governance is typically handled by a governing board or foundation, with community contributions via a public code repository and open governance processes.

See also

Open data, time series database, reproducible research, data provenance.