Upsurge in the use of data archived by FSD continued in 2022

In 2022, FSD services were widely used and users downloaded datasets from Aila Data Service more than ever before. The largest increase was seen in the use of data freely available under the Creative Commons BY 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license. FSD also archived and processed more datasets in 2022 than in 2021, and the number of registered users continued to grow.

Last year, data downloads from Aila Data Service saw an increase of nearly 45% from 2021. In total, FSD processed 5,863 access applications in 2022 (2021: 4,075). 6,514 datasets were delivered for reuse (2021: 4,503), of which 71% were quantitative (2021: 75%) and 29% were qualitative (2021: 25%). All in all, between 2014 and 2022, approximately 27,600 datasets have been downloaded from Aila (Figure 1).

Nearly half (42%) of downloaded datasets were (A) freely available under the CC BY 4.0 license. 2,757 freely available datasets were downloaded in 2022, compared to 1,832 downloads in 2021. Presently, datasets with access condition (A) account for 7% of all datasets available on Aila. 53% of downloads were of datasets which require registration and are available for (B) research, teaching and study. Datasets with access condition (B) account for 76% of all datasets on Aila.

Stacked bar chart. Data downloads 2018-2022.
Figure 1. Data downloads 2018-2022: In 2022, users downloaded datasets from Aila more than ever before. The most growth was seen in downloads of datasets (A) freely available under the CC BY 4.0 license and in the use of datasets for study purposes, but there were increases across all categories of use. Figure caption.

Datasets were widely used by registered users in Finnish higher education institutions. The most data were downloaded at Tampere University (28%), the Universities of Helsinki (12%), Oulu (9%), Jyväskylä (9%), Turku (8%) and Eastern Finland (7%). 6% of the dataset downloads came from registered users abroad (2021: 5%), and 13% of the datasets were downloaded from the English data catalogue of Aila. Users downloaded datasets most actively in January and October.

Increases across all categories of use - qualitative research data increasingly used for study purposes

Registered users downloaded datasets for research, teaching and studying purposes in greater numbers than in previous years. Downloads of qualitative datasets increased 85% for seminar papers/studying and 70% for Master’s theses in comparison to 2021. Downloads of quantitative datasets also increased 43% for research and 14% for seminar papers/studying in comparison to 2021.

As in 2021, the most popular dataset in 2022 was FSD3217 European Social Survey 2016: Finnish Data (Opens in a new tab) , which studied views on climate change, energy security and well-being. Of the datasets published in 2022, the most downloaded datasets were FSD3598 Finnish Youth Survey 2020 (Opens in a new tab) and FSD3576 Finnish Views on the Meaning of Food in Everyday Life 2021 (Opens in a new tab) . The qualitative textual data used in FSD3576 Finnish Views on the Meaning of Food in Everyday Life 2021 was collected using FSD’s data collection tool Penna.

Continued upward trend in the number of archived datasets and registered users

FSD’s data repository gained a record number of 129 new datasets in 2022 (2021: 114). 88 new datasets were published on Aila Data Service (2021: 103): 62 quantitative datasets (2021: 75) and 26 qualitative datasets (2021: 28). 15 openly accessible datasets were published on Aila Data Service in 2022. At the end of 2022, Aila contained a total of 1,775 datasets, of which 1,467 were quantitative and 308 qualitative.

In 2022, 1,843 unique registered users downloaded data from Aila (2021: 1,452). Overall, there were 4,485 registered Aila users at the end of 2022 (2021: 3,553).

The overall use of the FSD website in 2022 remained at a similar level as in 2021. The Research Methods Web Resource (MOTV) and other Finnish language content received the most site requests. The number of site requests also remained high for the Finnish Party Agenda Database (Pohtiva) service.

You can learn more about data use rates and other FSD operations in the annual report published online later this spring (in Finnish).