An independent, self-funded research initiative interconnecting open government spending data.
Publicspending.net gathers public expenditure records from several countries and jurisdictions, models them with the Public Spending (PSNET) ontology, and publishes the results as tables, statistics, bulk datasets and a SPARQL endpoint.
"It's time to follow the trillions..."
Public payments data for the USA, Greece, Australia, the UK, Chicago, Massachusetts and Alaska, spanning 1993 to 2013.
Payments organized by government payer and by payee, including links to Forbes Global 2000 company records.
A SPARQL endpoint with example queries lets researchers run custom questions against the full dataset.
Questions about the datasets or methodology can be sent to the project team.
Contact: publicspending.net@publicspending.net
Open government data on public expenditure is gathered globally and analyzed according to the Public Spending (PSNET) ontology. Algorithms unify differing company names across records and harmonize category classifications such as CPV and NAICS, so payments across jurisdictions can be compared.
Results are published on the site as tables, graphs and statistics, as bulk datasets on datahub.io, and through a SPARQL endpoint with example queries.
See how it works
Browse spending for 2011 and 2012 with top-payment tables listing payer, payee, amount and date. Category breakdowns are available across the UK, Australia, Greece, USA, Alaska, Massachusetts and Chicago, and payee records interlink with Forbes Global 2000 company data.
Browse payments
Data periods vary by source: Australia (Feb 2006–Nov 2012), USA (2009–2012), UK (Apr 2010–Dec 2012), Greece (Oct 2010–Nov 2012), Chicago (Jan 1993–Feb 2013), Alaska (Jul 2007–Mar 2013) and Massachusetts (2010–2012).
Our latest analysis examines Chicago cultural grants through the lens of public spending data, revealing how taxpayer funds support the arts. Chicago cultural grants through public spending data Public spending is the lifeblood of modern governance, yet for most citizens it remains a mystery. Publicspending.net exists to change that by pulling back the curtain on where public money actually goes. The initiative is independent and self-funded, which means it answers to no government agency, political party, or corporate interest. Instead, it answers to the data itself. By gathering open government expenditure records from multiple countries and jurisdictions, the project builds a clearer, more honest picture of how taxpayer funds move through the world. The goal is simple but ambitious: to help anyone, anywhere, follow the trillions.
The datasets published through this platform cover a meaningful range of public financial activity. For a deeper look into specific program-level costs, our analysis of UK prisoner escort and custody spending breaks down the full lifecycle expenses of the justice system. Understanding UK prisoner escort and custody spending Payment records from the United States, Greece, Australia, the United Kingdom, and several sub-national jurisdictions including Chicago, Massachusetts, and Alaska are collected and standardized for comparison. These records span a period from the early 1990s through the early 2010s, offering researchers, journalists, and curious citizens a longitudinal view of government spending patterns. What emerges is not just a collection of numbers but a story about priorities, commitments, and choices made on behalf of the public. Every figure tells something about how a society allocates its shared resources.
At the heart of the project is a commitment to meaningful structure. Raw spending records are messy, inconsistent, and difficult to compare across borders. Publicspending.net addresses this challenge by modeling all data with the Public Spending ontology, a framework designed to bring order to chaotic financial information. This ontology provides a consistent vocabulary for describing payments, payers, payees, and categories, making it possible to ask questions across datasets that would otherwise be impossible to answer. With this structure in place, users can move beyond isolated figures and begin to see the interconnections that define how public money circulates through economies worldwide.
The platform organizes its data in ways that make complex information approachable. Payments are presented through two primary lenses: by government payer and by payee. The payer perspective reveals how different levels of government allocate funds, showing where responsibilities lie and how money flows from one public entity to another. The payee perspective shifts the focus to the recipients, illuminating which companies, organizations, and individuals receive public funds and in what proportions. Together, these two views offer a comprehensive picture of the spending ecosystem, allowing users to trace money from its source through to its final destination.
A significant technical effort underlies the user-facing tables and statistics. The team behind Publicspending.net focuses on engineering systems that can handle large volumes of expenditure data while keeping it usable and meaningful. Central to this work is the development of algorithms that unify company names, which often appear in wildly different forms across various records. Entity classification is another key challenge, as different jurisdictions use different coding schemes such as CPV and NAICS. By developing parallel approaches to these classifications, the project enriches the records and makes cross-jurisdictional analysis far more practical than it would otherwise be.
For those who want to go beyond browsing, the platform offers substantial resources for deeper engagement. Bulk datasets are available for download, enabling researchers to work with the underlying data in their own tools and workflows. A SPARQL endpoint provides a powerful way to execute complex queries against the combined datasets, opening the door to sophisticated analysis that goes well beyond what static tables can offer. These technical resources reflect a core belief of the project: that public spending data should not merely be viewable but genuinely reusable. The more people who can work with this data, the more accountability and insight can emerge.
The project is part of a broader movement toward open data and government transparency. Around the world, citizens and civil society organizations are demanding greater visibility into how public money is managed. Publicspending.net contributes to this movement by focusing on the technical and conceptual work required to make spending data genuinely comparable across borders. The vision is not simply to publish numbers but to create a global framework in which spending information from different countries can sit side by side and be analyzed on equal terms. This is painstaking work, but it is essential for building trust between governments and the publics they serve.
While the current datasets cover a specific set of countries and time periods, the ambition of the project extends much further. The infrastructure and ontology developed here are designed to scale, meaning that new jurisdictions and new time ranges can be added as open data becomes available. The hope is that this platform can grow into a truly global resource for understanding public expenditure. Every new dataset added enriches the whole, creating more opportunities for comparison and discovery. In this way, the project is always in motion, always expanding, and always looking for the next set of records that can help complete the picture of worldwide public money flows.
Ultimately, Publicspending.net is built on a conviction that informed citizens are the foundation of accountable government. When people can see where their money goes, they are better equipped to ask questions, demand answers, and hold decision-makers responsible. The project makes no claims to be exhaustive or perfect, and it acknowledges the limitations and gaps in its coverage. What it offers instead is a serious, consistent, and open attempt to make public expenditure visible and understandable. For anyone who has ever wondered what happens to tax dollars after they leave a citizen's pocket, this platform is an invitation to look, explore, and follow the trillions.
Publicspending.net was built by scientists and web professionals from Greece and Spain to demonstrate the usefulness of economic Linked Open Data for transparency and innovation. The team collaborates with deixto.com for retrieving public data from sources without APIs or feeds, and the project was noted as a beta initiative rather than an official government service.
Meet the team