About Open Data

The California Department of Technology (CDT), part of the Government Operations Agency (GovOps), manages data.ca.gov, California’s statewide open data portal. The portal promotes collaboration, transparency, innovation, and more effective government by making public data easier to find, use, and analyze.

Open data is information collected by the state through its regular business activities and published in formats that are easy to search, download, and combine with other datasets. It does not include private, confidential, or personally identifiable information.

Although some state agencies maintain their own open data portals, data.ca.gov is designed to bring datasets from across state government together in one place. CDT works with state agencies and other partners to connect these resources so Californians can search for open datasets at data.ca.gov.

CDT works closely with the California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS), an early leader in statewide open data. The CHHS portal includes datasets from health and social services departments and offices, helping promote collaboration and improve understanding of program outcomes.

CDT also works closely with the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) and its open data portal to improve access to environmental and natural resources data. Together with state partners, CDT supports initiatives that use public data to encourage innovation and improve decision-making in areas such as sustainable state operations, water reliability, and resource sustainability.

CDT will continue working with state agencies and open data partners to make more public information available, accessible, and useful to Californians.

Civic Engagement

GovOps helped demonstrate the value of California's open data portals through several civic events. In 2015, it launched the CA GreenGov Challenge, bringing more than 80 civic technologists together to combine state and outside datasets and develop tools for more sustainable state operations. GovOps later partnered with the California Natural Resources Agency, the State Water Resources Control Board, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality on a water data challenge. Participants used public water and environmental data to develop tools supporting data-driven decisions about water reliability and resource sustainability. These events helped show how open data can connect government, communities, and innovators to address real-world challenges.

Built on open, modern infrastructure

The portal is powered by CKAN, the open-source data management platform used by governments worldwide, with a PortalJS front end for a fast, accessible browsing experience. Every dataset on this portal is discoverable through the same CKAN Action API that powers the catalog itself – see the documentation for details.

Standards & compliance

This portal is designed to align with the CA.gov web standards for state government websites, including required branding, plain-language content, and accessibility guidelines. Design tokens and components are documented and centralized so the portal can evolve consistently as new pages are added.

Accessibility statement

Website Accessibility Certification

The California Department of Technology is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. We are continually improving the user experience for everyone by applying the relevant accessibility standards, and we aim to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA success criteria across this portal.

If you encounter an accessibility barrier on this site, please let us know using the contact information below so we can address it.

Contact & feedback

Have a question about a dataset, a request for data that isn't yet published, or feedback on the portal itself? We'd like to hear from you.