ANMP launches Local Power Observatory with 258 indicators

A National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP) today revealed that the Local Power Observatory, a digital platform for free access, already centralizes more than 250 indicators, from more than 20 public entities, on the 308 municipalities of the country.

“The [Local Power] Observatory is a key tool to strengthen transparency, knowledge production, design new local public policies and value municipalism in our country. With the Observatory, all the information we have will be public access ", said the president of ANMP, Pedro Pimpão.

Promoted by ANMP and funded 100% by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), the Local Power Observatory represents an investment of 1.2 million euros, within the Digital Public Administration component, with the State Technological Reform Agency (ARTE) as intermediary entity.

This platform, presented publicly on June 29, 2026, in Coimbra, aims to respond to a problem identified by the association: the dispersion of municipal information by dozens of bodies, with different formats, periodicities and levels of detail.

The Local Authority Observatory continuously collects the data published by various public entities, such as the National Statistical Institute (INE) and the Directorate General of Local Authorities (DGAL), and organizes them according to municipal competences.”.

The whole platform brings together 258 indicators, distributed across 11 thematic areas: Social Action; Environment and Energy; Territorial Cohesion, Economic Activity and Demography; culture; Education; Local Finance; Governance; Mobility and Infrastructure; Urbanism and Housing; Civil Protection; Health.

The user can explore the data on a map, by NUTS II, NUTS III or municipality (Mainland, Azores and Madeira), filter by municipality and consult the index catalogue.

“ For integration with other systems, the OPL provides a public API with its own user manual,” ANMP added.

Thus, on a single platform, it is possible to assess, among other indicators, which are the municipalities that are attracting the population, those that fight aging, where the abstention fell, those that cover the need for a family doctor or which are the best payers.

The ANMP provides that the platform will continue to evolve, with the strengthening of automatic data integration, the extension of the number of indicators and participating entities and the introduction of artificial and analytical intelligence tools.

Among the targets set for 2027 are the connection to urban management platforms and the Intelligent Territory Portal, as well as the strengthening of information security and quality.

The long-term objective is to transform the Observatory into a reference tool to know and evaluate local activity, promoting the sharing of knowledge and good practices between municipalities.

With free access, the Local Power Observatory can be consulted at opl.anmp.pt.

The local authorities and technicians are addressed, but also researchers, students, journalists and citizens in general.

“ Supports evidence-based analysis and decision-making, monitoring skills decentralisation and public participation,” the ANMP said.