Open Data Insight of the Day

Street cleanliness in Basel is assessed using a cleanliness index derived from video recordings taken by street-sweeping vehicles. The Grand Council has set a target threshold for this index at 4.5, aiming for a high standard of cleanliness across the city. The index ranges from 0 to 5, with scores below 3 considered poor, between 3 and 4 as moderate, and above 4 as good.

In November 2025, data was collected from 4,879 street sections, resulting in 129,407 individual measurements. The cleanliness index for these sections ranged from a minimum of 3.63 to a maximum of 5.0, with an average value of 4.7. Impressively, 84.8% of the measurements exceeded the required threshold of 4.5, while 15.2% fell below it.

The top five districts in terms of average cleanliness were Vorstädte, Altstadt Grossbasel, Gotthelf, Bruderholz, and Bachletten, with average cleanliness indices ranging from 4.73 to 4.77. Conversely, the districts of Matthäus, Altstadt Kleinbasel, Clara, Wettstein, and Kleinhüningen were at the bottom, with average indices ranging from 4.5 to 4.66. It's important to note that while average cleanliness is a common metric, rankings can vary when considering the percentage of measurements that exceed the 4.5 threshold, as detailed in tables 1 and 2.

Comparing data from January 2024 to November 2025, there has been a noticeable improvement in street cleanliness. The percentage of measurements rated as good (4.0 or better) increased from 98.8% to 99.7%, and those exceeding the 4.5 threshold rose from 67.8% to 84.8%. This suggests a positive trend in overall street cleanliness, as illustrated in Figure 1, which tracks these changes over time.