OpenAddresses

OpenAddresses is a free, open-source project that collects and publishes worldwide address data. It provides structured location data—like street names, house numbers, and coordinates—that can be used in mapping, geocoding, and analysis. For GIS professionals and developers, OpenAddresses offers a transparent and flexible alternative to commercial address datasets.

What Is OpenAddresses?

OpenAddresses aggregates address data from government open data portals and contributors around the world. It is not a company or service, but a community project. The goal is to make address data freely available and easy to use in software and analysis.

What’s in the Data?

Each dataset contains:

• Street address (number and street name)
• City or locality
• Region or province
• Postal code
• Latitude and longitude
• Source attribution

Most records are geocoded—meaning they come with exact geographic coordinates. This allows you to plot points directly on a map.

Geographic Coverage

Coverage varies by country and region.

• Some areas (like the U.S., Canada, parts of Europe) have millions of addresses.
• Others have limited or no data due to lack of open sources.
• A coverage map is available on the website to show what’s available.

Because data is crowdsourced and sourced from public agencies, it is constantly growing and improving.

Use Cases in GIS

Geocoding

Use OpenAddresses data as a source for building your own geocoding system.

Urban Planning

Map address density to identify urban cores, gaps in service, or residential expansion.

Emergency Services

Analyze address reach and coverage for planning EMS or fire response.

Business Intelligence

Use address-level data to analyze retail clusters or delivery areas.

Infrastructure Projects

Overlay addresses with transport or utility networks for planning upgrades.

How to Access the Data

• Go to openaddresses.io
• Browse or search by country or region
• Download data in CSV or GeoJSON format
• Each download includes address data plus metadata and licensing info

Files are structured and clean, ready for use in QGIS, ArcGIS, or browser-based platforms like Atlas.

How It Works

1. Volunteers and contributors find public address datasets.
2. They write simple scripts (called “sources”) that fetch and format the data.
3. The data is standardized and hosted on GitHub.
4. Downloads are grouped by country and region.

You can also contribute by adding new data or fixing existing scripts.

File Structure

Each dataset typically includes:

• addresses.csv – Core address data
• README.md – Info about the source and coverage
• LICENSE.txt – Licensing terms
• Sometimes a GeoJSON preview or metadata file

The CSV files include fields like number, street, city, postcode, lon, and lat.

Licensing and Use

All datasets include license details—most are under public domain or Creative Commons licenses.

You can:

• Use the data commercially
• Modify and remix it
• Build custom tools or maps

Just follow any attribution or share-alike requirements specified in the license.

Limitations

• Coverage is not complete—some countries or cities are missing.
• Data quality varies depending on the original source.
• It’s not a full geocoder—you’ll need tools like Pelias or PostGIS to build one using OpenAddresses.

Still, it’s one of the largest open address datasets available today.