Datapohjaisten

Datapohjaisten is the genitive plural form of the Finnish adjective datapohjainen, meaning data-based or data-driven. In Finnish, adjectives inflect to agree with the nouns they modify, and -isten is the ending used for plural genitive forms. Thus datapohjaisten modifies plural nouns in contexts such as decisions, methods, or recommendations that are described as being based on data rather than intuition or opinion.

The term is used in Finnish to describe approaches, analyses, and policies that rely on empirical data and evidence. Common phrases include datapohjaisten päätösten tekeminen (making data-based decisions), datapohjaiset menetelmät (data-driven methods), and datapohjaiset suositukset (data-based recommendations). It is often used alongside synonyms like dataan perustuva or dataohjautuva, reflecting similar meanings with slight stylistic or nuance differences.

Datapohjaisten approaches emphasize objectivity, reproducibility, and transparency in decision-making and research. However, they also raise considerations related to data quality, governance, privacy, and the risk of bias stemming from how data are collected, stored, or analyzed. In practice, the term can function descriptively to label a methodology or prescriptively to argue for the adoption of a data-driven stance.

Etymology and related forms: datapohjainen is a direct calque from English data-driven and is used in many Nordic languages with similar meaning. The adverbial form is datapohjaisesti, and related nouns include datapohjaisuus (data-based nature). The plural genitive datapohjaisten is most commonly encountered in phrases referring to multiple data-based entities or actions.