Frequently asked questions

Both individual entities and whole datasets are tracked for changes over time. The "last change" field (last_change in the data) indicates the most recent change in any field in the data.

It's important to keep in mind that changes in the database can be either the result of changes at the data source (made by the publisher), but also the result of changes in how OpenSanctions processes the data (for example, an updated data model).

Changes in entity identifiers also don't alter the contents of the data itself, and thus don't lead to a bump in the last_change field.

Caveat: as at 2025-03, the dataset last_change is the maximum change date of all the entities in the dataset. This means that if entities are removed from a dataset, the last_change timestamp will not grow, but stay constant, or, in some cases, even default to an earlier date.