1001 Smart Cities
🇪🇪 Tartu

Kaasav Eelarve — Estonia's First Participatory Budget

🤖 AI-generated summary of the sources below · 🔎 Last verified · ◆ 14 sourced claims, none individually verified yet

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

Tartu launched Estonia's first participatory budget in 2013 and has voted every year since. Anyone may propose an investment idea, an expert commission screens the proposals for feasibility, and everyone registered in Tartu aged 14 or over (16 until 2018) casts up to three votes in the VOLIS local-government information system, authenticating with Estonia's ID-card, Mobile-ID or Smart-ID. The pot began at €140,000, about one per cent of the investment budget; the city council raised it to €150,000 in 2016 and €200,000 in 2018, with ideas capped at €100,000 so at least two win each year.

Live 📅 since 2013
Outcome🔄 Ongoing
Evidence🔬 Peer-reviewed
what does this mean?The strongest source behind this entry is an independent peer-reviewed or academic study. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Run byTartu City Government (Department of Public Relations)
Scale🏙️ City-wide
Cost€200,000/year (from €140,000 in 2013)

📊 Impact

Turnout is the city's own published series: 2,645 voters in the 2013 pilot (3.3 per cent of those eligible), a slump to 1,938 in year two, a climb to the 2019 peak of 7,312 (9.3 per cent), a slide to 4,685 by 2022 and a recovery to 6,316 in 2025. Since 2022 the city has published no participation rate at all: students enrolled in Tartu may now vote without being registered residents, so the eligible total is unknowable. The winners list tracks delivery idea by idea — a single winner, a 2015 amphitheatre on Toome Hill, is recorded as never built.

🎓 Lesson

The operator kept publishing the numbers that show what a participatory budget settles into after the novelty: a slump in year two, growth to the 2019 peak, then a slide and a slow recovery, with even the published peak below one eligible voter in ten. The process travelled further than the turnout — a peer-reviewed diffusion study found that later Estonian adopters took Tartu as their primary reference, several of them voting on the same VOLIS module Tartu had paid to develop for its 2013 pilot.

🏛️ GovernanceCitizen participationDigital government

Sources

↗ City of Tartu — Kaasav eelarve programme and statistics (authority)Updated 22 June 2026The operator record: 2026 rules (ideas up to €100,000 from a €200,000 pot guaranteeing at least two winners; public vote 1–7 October 2026 in VOLIS with ID-card, Mobile-ID or Smart-ID authentication; assisted voting at the town-hall information centre), eligibility (14+ registered residents, 16 until 2018; since 2022 also 14–26-year-olds studying in Tartu), the budget history (€140,000 for the first three years, raised by the city council to €150,000 in 2016 and €200,000 in 2018), the followers Tartu inspired, and the full 2013–2025 statistics table of ideas submitted, ideas on the ballot, voters and votes. Content blocks carry separate revision stamps; the newest shown is 22 June 2026.
↗ City of Tartu — Participative budgeting, process and winning ideas (authority)Updated 26 August 2026English overview: 'Tartu was the first city in Estonia that opened its budget designing process to citizens', €200,000 as about 1% of the following year's investment budget, the three programme goals, the organiser (Department of Public Relations of Tartu City Government, counselled by the e-Governance Academy), and the year-by-year winners list with delivery status — including the sole winner never built (the 2015 Toome Hill amphitheatre) and per-winner vote counts from 2022 onwards.
↗ Krenjova & Raudla, Urban Affairs Review — Policy Diffusion at the Local Level: Participatory Budgeting in Estonia (peer-reviewed)Published 22 January 2017Peer-reviewed (Urban Affairs Review 54(2), published online 22 January 2017, Crossref-confirmed). Documents that participatory budgeting was 'launched first by the city of Tartu in spring 2013', that the e-Governance Academy led the pilot's preparation, the €140,000 first pot, that VOLIS's participatory-budgeting functionality was built specifically for the Tartu pilot and funded by the city government, and that all interviewed later adopters named Tartu as their primary source of information. First author was a project manager at the e-Governance Academy, the NGO that advised Tartu — a participant-affiliated account that passed peer review.
↗ e-Governance Academy — Participatory Budgeting in Tartu City (project page)The adviser's own record of the 2013 pilot: 'first city in Estonia that opens up its budget designing process for citizens', 140,000 euros as about 1% of the next year's investment budget, eGA consulting the whole process and coordinating VOLIS development for participatory-budgeting needs. A partner's record, not an independent evaluation; the page states no date.
↗ Tartu Postimees — Kaasava eelarve hääletuse võitsid nutikad foorid ja toidujagamiskapid (media)Published 8 October 2025 · updated 11 October 2025Independent press report of the October 2025 vote: winners 'Foorid nutikamaks ja inimsõbralikumaks' (smarter, more people-friendly traffic lights, 1,276 votes) and 'Toidujagamiskapid igasse linnaossa' (food-sharing cabinets in every district, 1,188 votes). Confirms the most recent completed edition.
Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 14 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence Passport · public beta 14 addressable claims, 5 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The passport is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 14

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-e29f42d1ae1810e9 quantitative
Tartu launched Estonia's first participatory budget in 2013
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The journal states it verbatim: 'Indeed, PB in Estonia is a rather new phenomenon, launched first by the city of Tartu in spring 2013.' The city's English page says 'Tartu was the first city in Estonia that opened its budget designing process to citizens and began experimenting with participative budgeting in 2013', and the e-Governance Academy's project record repeats the first-in-Estonia framing.
Caveat
The journal's first author was a project manager at the e-Governance Academy, the NGO that advised Tartu — a participant-affiliated account that passed peer review.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Krenjova & Raudla, Urban Affairs Review — Policy Diffusion at the Local Level: Participatory Budgeting in Estonia (peer-reviewed)
  2. City of Tartu — Participative budgeting, process and winning ideas (authority)
  3. e-Governance Academy — Participatory Budgeting in Tartu City (project page)
Claim 2 clm-763b5036ae31e2f7 descriptive
has voted every year since
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The city's statistics table lists a vote in every year from 2013 through 2025 (ideas submitted, ideas on the ballot, voters and votes for each year), and the 2026 page schedules the next one: 'Tartu kaasava eelarve rahvahääletus toimub 1.-7. oktoobril 2026' — the public vote takes place 1–7 October 2026, winners to be implemented in 2027.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Tartu — Kaasav eelarve programme and statistics (authority)
Claim 3 clm-833ee5c9de5f4476 descriptive
Anyone may propose an investment idea, an expert commission screens the proposals for feasibility
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
'Kaasava eelarve idee võib esitada igaüks' — anyone may submit a participatory-budget idea; ideas are gathered in the VOLIS environment (ideas sent by e-mail or post are added there by the organisers). 'Esitatud ideid hindab eksperdikomisjon, mille koosseisus on vastava ala spetsialistid' — an expert commission of specialists assesses the submitted ideas' feasibility in time, money and technique, and its opinions are attached to each idea in VOLIS.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Tartu — Kaasav eelarve programme and statistics (authority)
Claim 4 clm-de51a1b1ee8f9872 quantitative
everyone registered in Tartu aged 14 or over (16 until 2018) casts up to three votes
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Eligibility: 'iga 14-aastane ja vanem isik, kelle elukoht on Eesti rahvastikuregistri andmetel Tartu linnas' — every person aged 14 or over whose residence per the Estonian population register is Tartu; the FAQ adds 'kuni aastani 2018 oli vanusepiiriks 16 eluaastat' (until 2018 the age limit was 16, lowered to 14 from 2019). Each participant 'saab hääletada kuni kolme erineva endale meelepärase idee poolt' — may vote for up to three different ideas.
Caveat
Since the 2022 vote the franchise is wider than registered residents: 14–26-year-olds studying in Tartu, checked against the national education information system, may also vote.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Tartu — Kaasav eelarve programme and statistics (authority)
Claim 5 clm-3df284d17a9046ca descriptive
in the VOLIS local-government information system, authenticating with Estonia's ID-card, Mobile-ID or Smart-ID
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Voting happens 'elektrooniliselt infosüsteemis Volis, kus tuleb end identifitseerides ID-kaardi, mobiil-IDga või Smart-ID-ga' — electronically in the VOLIS information system, identifying oneself with ID-card, Mobile-ID or Smart-ID. Assisted voting with an identity document is available at the town-hall information centre on every voting day.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Tartu — Kaasav eelarve programme and statistics (authority)
Claim 6 clm-3e6e678bda5c808b quantitative
The pot began at €140,000, about one per cent of the investment budget
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The city: 'Kolmel esimesel aastal said tartlased otsustada 140 000 euro üle' — for the first three years residents decided over €140,000. The e-Governance Academy's page: '140 000 euros which is about 1% of next years’s investment budget' (typo in the original). The journal's comparison table also records €140,000 for Tartu.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Tartu — Kaasav eelarve programme and statistics (authority)
  2. e-Governance Academy — Participatory Budgeting in Tartu City (project page)
  3. Krenjova & Raudla, Urban Affairs Review — Policy Diffusion at the Local Level: Participatory Budgeting in Estonia (peer-reviewed)
Claim 7 clm-7c77b52b2eecfe6f quantitative
the city council raised it to €150,000 in 2016 and €200,000 in 2018
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim: '2016. aastal tõstis Tartu linnavolikogu kaasava eelarve summat 150 000 euroni ning 2018. aastal 200 000 euroni' — in 2016 the Tartu city council raised the participatory-budget sum to €150,000 and in 2018 to €200,000.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Tartu — Kaasav eelarve programme and statistics (authority)
Claim 8 clm-85790d80e39f164a quantitative
ideas capped at €100,000 so at least two win each year
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The rules cap a single idea at €100,000: 'investeeringuobjekt maksumusega kuni 100 000 eurot. Kuna kaasava eelarve kogusummaks on 200 000 eurot, tagab see vähemalt kahe idee elluviimise' — since the total is €200,000, this guarantees at least two ideas are realised. The English page repeats it: 'Each year, at least two ideas are developed into projects, totalling the overall budget of 200,000 EUR.'
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Tartu — Kaasav eelarve programme and statistics (authority)
  2. City of Tartu — Participative budgeting, process and winning ideas (authority)
Claim 9 clm-bd433a000d34c82e quantitative
2,645 voters in the 2013 pilot (3.3 per cent of those eligible), a slump to 1,938 in year two, a climb to the 2019 peak of 7,312 (9.3 per cent), a slide to 4,685 by 2022 and a recovery to 6,316 in 2025
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Every figure sits in the city's own statistics table ('Kaasava eelarve statistikat'): 2013 — 2645 voters (3,3%); 2014 — 1938 (2,4%); then 3772, 4178, 4635, 5291 up to 7312 (9,3%) in 2019; 7260 in 2020, 5948 in 2021, 4685 in 2022, 5380 in 2023, 5852 in 2024 and 6316 in 2025. The percentages are the city's own, computed against eligible residents (about 80,000 in 2013–2017, about 79,000 in 2019).
Caveat
Voters, not votes: since 2014 each voter has up to three votes (the 2025 votes column reads 13,177), and the city notes roughly two are used on average.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Tartu — Kaasav eelarve programme and statistics (authority)
Claim 10 clm-3cc0a5589f5da268 quantitative
Since 2022 the city has published no participation rate at all: students enrolled in Tartu may now vote without being registered residents, so the eligible total is unknowable
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The table's own footnote: since the 2022 vote, students studying at Tartu's institutions of higher education without being registered in the city may participate; because the city has no data on their number, 'ei ole võimalik välja arvutada ka osalusprotsenti' — a participation percentage can no longer be calculated, and from then on only voter counts are published. The 2026 rules extend the franchise to 14–26-year-olds studying in Tartu per the Estonian Education Information System.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Tartu — Kaasav eelarve programme and statistics (authority)
Claim 11 clm-379e73432342e273 quantitative
The winners list tracks delivery idea by idea — a single winner, a 2015 amphitheatre on Toome Hill, is recorded as never built
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The 'Ideas that have won so far' list marks each winning idea with its delivery year ('It was put into practice in …') or a planned year; the sole exception is 2015's 'Amphitheatre on Toome Hill. It was not put into practice.'
Caveat
The most recent winners (2024's Karlova Beach and both 2025 ideas) are listed as due for delivery in 2026, so 'delivered or scheduled' — not yet all delivered.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Tartu — Participative budgeting, process and winning ideas (authority)
Claim 12 clm-86d544e5079ed740 quantitative
a slump in year two, growth to the 2019 peak, then a slide and a slow recovery, with even the published peak below one eligible voter in ten
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The trajectory reads directly off the city's table: 2645 (2013), 1938 (2014), rising yearly to 7312 in 2019, falling to 4685 in 2022, then 5380, 5852 and 6316. The highest participation rate the city ever published is 9.3 per cent, in 2019 — below one in ten; from 2022 no rate is published at all.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. City of Tartu — Kaasav eelarve programme and statistics (authority)
Claim 13 clm-8277dec6213e9bfa descriptive
a peer-reviewed diffusion study found that later Estonian adopters took Tartu as their primary reference
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim: 'All respondents admitted that the example of Tartu was the primary source of information about PB, and for most of them, Tartu was the main case they were referring to when designing their own procedure.' The city's own page lists the followers: Viljandi, Pärnu, Haapsalu, Elva, Kuressaare, Jõgeva, Tõrva, Rapla, Tapa and others.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Krenjova & Raudla, Urban Affairs Review — Policy Diffusion at the Local Level: Participatory Budgeting in Estonia (peer-reviewed)
Claim 14 clm-199101848296663c quantitative
several of them voting on the same VOLIS module Tartu had paid to develop for its 2013 pilot
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim: 'PB functionality in VOLIS was elaborated specifically for the PB pilot project in Tartu, funded by Tartu city government'; the study's comparison table shows Kuressaare, Elva, Viljandi, Pärnu and Puhja also voting through VOLIS.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Krenjova & Raudla, Urban Affairs Review — Policy Diffusion at the Local Level: Participatory Budgeting in Estonia (peer-reviewed)
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-28-tartu-baseline effective 2026-08-28 · created 2026-08-28

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:8ad4218b96639c3fbe04138d5ed0cd3325e7bbd7f17962374ab77aec7f896edf
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
14
of 14 claims mapped
5
source dossiers
2
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Tartu City Government (Department of Public Relations)
Actor types
city-government
Funding model
public
Funding description
Not recorded
Cost
€200,000/year (from €140,000 in 2013)
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

5 source dossiers

City of Tartu — Kaasav eelarve programme and statistics (authority) tartu.ee · 10 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-ef6500ed6cde4110
Publisher
Name not classified · tartu.ee
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
2026-06-22
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-28
Dossier created
2026-08-28
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The operator record: 2026 rules (ideas up to €100,000 from a €200,000 pot guaranteeing at least two winners; public vote 1–7 October 2026 in VOLIS with ID-card, Mobile-ID or Smart-ID authentication; assisted voting at the town-hall information centre), eligibility (14+ registered residents, 16 until 2018; since 2022 also 14–26-year-olds studying in Tartu), the budget history (€140,000 for the first three years, raised by the city council to €150,000 in 2016 and €200,000 in 2018), the followers Tartu inspired, and the full 2013–2025 statistics table of ideas submitted, ideas on the ballot, voters and votes. Content blocks carry separate revision stamps; the newest shown is 22 June 2026.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
City of Tartu — Participative budgeting, process and winning ideas (authority) tartu.ee · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-5809f8ed5f8c98e9
Publisher
Name not classified · tartu.ee
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
2026-08-26
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-28
Dossier created
2026-08-28
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

English overview: 'Tartu was the first city in Estonia that opened its budget designing process to citizens', €200,000 as about 1% of the following year's investment budget, the three programme goals, the organiser (Department of Public Relations of Tartu City Government, counselled by the e-Governance Academy), and the year-by-year winners list with delivery status — including the sole winner never built (the 2015 Toome Hill amphitheatre) and per-winner vote counts from 2022 onwards.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Krenjova & Raudla, Urban Affairs Review — Policy Diffusion at the Local Level: Participatory Budgeting in Estonia (peer-reviewed) doi.org · 4 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-4859ff2623775145
Publisher
Name not classified · doi.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2017-01-22
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-28
Dossier created
2026-08-28
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Peer-reviewed (Urban Affairs Review 54(2), published online 22 January 2017, Crossref-confirmed). Documents that participatory budgeting was 'launched first by the city of Tartu in spring 2013', that the e-Governance Academy led the pilot's preparation, the €140,000 first pot, that VOLIS's participatory-budgeting functionality was built specifically for the Tartu pilot and funded by the city government, and that all interviewed later adopters named Tartu as their primary source of information. First author was a project manager at the e-Governance Academy, the NGO that advised Tartu — a participant-affiliated account that passed peer review.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
e-Governance Academy — Participatory Budgeting in Tartu City (project page) ega.ee · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-b6caff8e45ac9b0e
Publisher
Name not classified · ega.ee
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-28
Dossier created
2026-08-28
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The adviser's own record of the 2013 pilot: 'first city in Estonia that opens up its budget designing process for citizens', 140,000 euros as about 1% of the next year's investment budget, eGA consulting the whole process and coordinating VOLIS development for participatory-budgeting needs. A partner's record, not an independent evaluation; the page states no date.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Tartu Postimees — Kaasava eelarve hääletuse võitsid nutikad foorid ja toidujagamiskapid (media) tartu.postimees.ee · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-a70c1b714d08988b
Publisher
Name not classified · tartu.postimees.ee
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-10-08
Updated
2025-10-11
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-28
Dossier created
2026-08-28
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Independent press report of the October 2025 vote: winners 'Foorid nutikamaks ja inimsõbralikumaks' (smarter, more people-friendly traffic lights, 1,276 votes) and 'Toidujagamiskapid igasse linnaossa' (food-sharing cabinets in every district, 1,188 votes). Confirms the most recent completed edition.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇦🇹 Viennese Supergrätzl (Superblocks) · Vienna Participation with a published result: Vienna evaluates a rebuilt street; Tartu publishes the turnout of every money vote it has held.

Explore the wider context

🗺️ Your City's Problem Map Is Really a Map of Who Complains🗳️ Citizen participation guide🏙️ Tartu city profile🏛️ Governance projects📖 Civic participation platform📖 Digital identity📖 Government super-app
📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Kaasav Eelarve — Estonia's First Participatory Budget” — Tartu, Estonia. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/tartu-participatory-budget/ (last verified 2026-08-28). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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