README.md

---
license: other
license_name: gus-attribution
license_details: >-
  Source data from Statistics Poland (GUS) Local Data Bank (Bank Danych
  Lokalnych), bdl.stat.gov.pl. GUS permits reuse of published data with
  attribution to the source. This repackaging adds no additional restrictions.
language:
  - pl
pretty_name: GUS BDL — Polish Local Data Bank (full local extract)
size_categories:
  - 1B<n<10B
tags:
  - poland
  - official-statistics
  - regional-data
  - economics
  - demographics
  - panel-data
configs:
  - config_name: gminy
    data_files: facts_gminy/part-*.parquet
  - config_name: powiaty
    data_files: facts_powiaty/part-*.parquet
  - config_name: podregiony
    data_files: facts_podregiony.parquet
  - config_name: wojewodztwa
    data_files: facts_wojewodztwa.parquet
  - config_name: makroregiony
    data_files: facts_makroregiony.parquet
  - config_name: codebook
    data_files: codebook.parquet
  - config_name: units
    data_files: units.parquet
---

# GUS BDL — Polish Local Data Bank, full local extract

Complete extract of the [GUS Bank Danych Lokalnych](https://bdl.stat.gov.pl)
(Local Data Bank of Statistics Poland) via its public API: **~1.26 billion
observations** covering every published variable at every administrative level
from gmina (municipality) upward, years 1995–2024 where available.

## Files

| File | Unit level | Units | Variables | Rows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| `facts_gminy/part-*.parquet` (16 files) | 6 — gminy (municipalities) | 4,180 | 35,631 | 1,051,816,661 |
| `facts_powiaty/part-*.parquet` (4 files) | 5 — powiaty (counties) | 382 | 63,748 | 154,585,967 |
| `facts_podregiony.parquet` | 4 — podregiony (subregions) | 73 | 67,962 | 32,782,913 |
| `facts_wojewodztwa.parquet` | 2 — województwa (voivodeships) | 16 | 171,845 | 17,094,800 |
| `facts_makroregiony.parquet` | 1 — makroregiony (macroregions) | 7 | 171,845 | 7,478,975 |
| `codebook.parquet` | — | | 171,912 | variable descriptions |
| `units.parquet` | — | 4,658 | | unit directory |

No level 0 (national), level 3 (regiony), or level 7 (localities) data is included.

Gminy and powiaty are split into part files by `variable_id` range so remote
readers fetch only the small file a query needs; `manifest.json` maps each
part to its variable range. The other levels are single files.

## Schema

Fact tables: `variable_id` (int), `unitId` (12-char zero-padded GUS unit code,
string), `unitName`, `unitLevel`, `year`, `value` (double), `attr_id` (GUS
attribute flag).

`codebook.parquet` maps `variable_id` to subject codes, human-readable Polish
descriptions (`variable_full_name`), dimension breakdowns (`n1`–`n5`, e.g.
sex, age group), and measure units. `units.parquet` lists each territorial
unit with its level, voivodeship TERYT prefix, and first/last observed year.

Gminy counts exceed the ~2,477 actual municipalities because urban-rural
gminy appear as up to three units (combined, town, rural part).

## Querying without downloading

DuckDB reads these files in place over HTTP with predicate pushdown:

```sql
SELECT f.year, f.value, c.variable_full_name
FROM read_parquet('hf://datasets/fmbeilin/gus-bdl/facts_gminy/part-*.parquet') f
JOIN read_parquet('hf://datasets/fmbeilin/gus-bdl/codebook.parquet') c
  USING (variable_id)
WHERE f.unitId = '011212001011'   -- gmina Bochnia
  AND c.subjectId = 'P1312';
```

Python users can also load slices via `pandas.read_parquet("hf://datasets/fmbeilin/gus-bdl/facts_wojewodztwa.parquet")`
or the `datasets` library using the configs above.

## Provenance

Extracted from the official BDL API (`bdl.stat.gov.pl/api/v1`) December
2025 – February 2026. Values are as published by GUS; no cleaning,
imputation, or revision beyond type normalisation (unit IDs zero-padded to
the canonical 12-character form). Extraction and packaging pipeline:
[github.com/fmbeilin/bdl-gus](https://github.com/fmbeilin/bdl-gus).

**Attribution**: data source — Główny Urząd Statystyczny (Statistics Poland),
Bank Danych Lokalnych, bdl.stat.gov.pl.