I did some statistical evaluation around StreetComplete, and in this post I describe what I evaluated and what the results are.

(This post is more or less the english text version of this YouTube video, which is in german. There is also a german version of this post here.)

First of all, how did I evaluate this data, or rather, where did I get all the info I’m talking about here? The basis was the StreetCompleteNumbers script that I wrote some time ago. It’s a Python script that can be used to find out the number of solved quests for a user. The script is also available on GitHub. One can use this script very easily:

from StreetCompleteNumbers import StreetCompleteNumbers

StreetCompleteNumbers("wielandb")

Then we just had to find out who are the users whose StreetComplete numbers we want to download. I tried to develop a method that makes as small a number of requests to the OpenStreetMap servers as possible. So simply downloading the entire changeset history for every user I come across should be avoided. I was using the daily replication diffs since October 2021 (so since half a year ago). I downloaded every diff file, and looked at every changeset that occurred in it. If a changeset contains the changeset tag StreetComplete:QuestType, I trigger a download and save of its numbers for that user. Also, the program remembers for which users it has already saved StreetComplete numbers, so that they are not downloaded twice for the same user.

So I ended up with StreetComplete numbers for 5284 users, which was my database. And so we came directly to the first limitation of this evaluation. Only users who solved at least one StreetComplete quest between October 2021 and March 2022 appear in this statistic.

Before we get to the statistics, it should be said that I do not want to name any users in this evaluation, so we will only see the countries of the top users. So, let’s get to the statistics now:

How many ★ do the top users have?

How many users have disabled quests enabled?

To do this, I created a list myself of quests that were disabled by default and checked for each user in my database to see if they had at least one solution for at least one of those quests. The evaluation showed, one third of the users did not solve a single quest that was disabled by default. In theory, this doesn’t have to mean that these users haven’t activated any of these quests, but since many quests are deactivated because they are so spammy, I think we have a good estimate here.

How many quests were solved in total?

The data I have indicates that over 14 million quests have been solved using StreetComplete. (To be precise, there were 13,975,938 quests at the time of the survey, which is why the percentages in the table below are based on this figure).

How are the solved quests distributed among the colors?

In StreetComplete, each quest has a color that assigns it to a rough category. The categories are the following:

• Blue represents footpaths and pedestrians.
• Yellow represents streets and cars
• Light gray (beige?) represents buildings
• Dark grey represents man_made, so roughly “infrastructure”
• Orange is for stores
• Pink represents bicycles
• Green is for public facilities like benches and trash cans
• Brown represents nature

Here is the distribution as a graph:

And here as a table:

Single Color	Total	Percent
Light Brown	91112	13975938	0.65%
Gray	109326	13975938	0.78%
Orange	307434	13975938	2.20%
Green	391304	13975938	2.80%
Pink	585953	13975938	4.19%
Yellow	2963361	13975938	21.20%
Blue	4697256	13975938	33.61%
Light Gray	4830192	13975938	34.56%

Which quests are solved the most/least often?

Here is a graph showing the 3 most frequently solved quests, as well as the quests that have been solved under 100 times overall by all users:

I think the quests with extremely few solutions can all be explained relatively easily:

• “Is it possible to refuel at this gas station itself?” is not shown in Germany - which is very strongly represented in OSM and StreetComplete.
• “Is there a summit book at this summit?” has probably not been answered so often because, on the one hand, there are not so many summits. For another, running through a city with StreetComplete is one thing, but climbing mountain peaks with StreetComplete is something else :D
• The barrier-quests, air-conditioning-quest and physical-height-quest are all relatively new and probably therefore hardly answered yet. The air conditioning quest is disabled by default, and the physical height quest is in last place in my opinion, because you have to use the AR measurement tool for it, which not all phones have.

Here is another graph that shows some more quests with their respective percentages:

And here is the whole list of quests in ascending order by the number of their solutions:

Quest-ID	Number solved	All solved quests	Proportion of this quest in all solutions
AddMaxPhysicalHeight	19	13975938	0,0001%
AddAirConditioning	52	13975938	0,0004%
AddBarrierOnRoad	60	13975938	0,0004%
AddSummitRegister	65	13975938	0,0005%
AddBarrierOnPath	76	13975938	0,0005%
AddFuelSelfService	93	13975938	0,0007%
AddAcceptsCash	122	13975938	0,0009%
AddPoliceType	126	13975938	0,0009%
AddCyclewayWidth	149	13975938	0,0011%
AddTrafficCalmingType	214	13975938	0,0015%
AddWheelchairAccessToiletsPart	376	13975938	0,0027%
CheckOpeningHoursSigned	380	13975938	0,0027%
AddFerryAccessPedestrian	389	13975938	0,0028%
AddFerryAccessMotorVehicle	454	13975938	0,0032%
AddStileType	502	13975938	0,0036%
AddBarrierType	631	13975938	0,0045%
AddCameraType	717	13975938	0,0051%
AddBikeParkingFee	756	13975938	0,0054%
AddWheelchairAccessOutside	756	13975938	0,0054%
AddStreetParking	771	13975938	0,0055%
AddLevel	802	13975938	0,0057%
AddBikeParkingAccess	938	13975938	0,0067%
AddChargingStationOperator	992	13975938	0,0071%
AddReligionToPlaceOfWorship	1027	13975938	0,0073%
AddRoadWidth	1032	13975938	0,0074%
AddMotorcycleParkingCapacity	1060	13975938	0,0076%
AddIsBuildingUnderground	1102	13975938	0,0079%
AddSelfServiceLaundry	1169	13975938	0,0084%
AddClothingBinOperator	1313	13975938	0,0094%
AddBusStopRef	1335	13975938	0,0096%
SpecifyShopType	1354	13975938	0,0097%
AddIsDefibrillatorIndoor	1388	13975938	0,0099%
AddSuspectedOneway	1501	13975938	0,0107%
AddAtmOperator	1502	13975938	0,0107%
AddInternetAccess	1515	13975938	0,0108%
AddDrinkingWater	1673	13975938	0,0120%
AddChargingStationCapacity	1910	13975938	0,0137%
AddPostboxRef	1919	13975938	0,0137%
AddInformationToTourism	2113	13975938	0,0151%
AddPostboxRoyalCypher	2151	13975938	0,0154%
AddBabyChangingTable	2202	13975938	0,0158%
AddReligionToWaysideShrine	2240	13975938	0,0160%
AddOrchardProduce	2315	13975938	0,0166%
AddGeneralFee	2448	13975938	0,0175%
AddCarWashType	2455	13975938	0,0176%
AddToiletAvailability	2519	13975938	0,0180%
AddMotorcycleParkingCover	2638	13975938	0,0189%
AddBicycleBarrierType	2994	13975938	0,0214%
DetermineRecyclingGlass	3040	13975938	0,0218%
CheckShopType	3736	13975938	0,0267%
AddWheelchairAccessPublicTransport	3834	13975938	0,0274%
AddOneway	4034	13975938	0,0289%
AddHalal	4192	13975938	0,0300%
AddVegan	4536	13975938	0,0325%
AddKosher	5104	13975938	0,0365%
AddFireHydrantDiameter	5136	13975938	0,0367%
AddWheelchairAccessToilets	5293	13975938	0,0379%
AddSport	5531	13975938	0,0396%
AddBoardType	5706	13975938	0,0408%
AddPicnicTableCover	6012	13975938	0,0430%
AddBusStopName	6301	13975938	0,0451%
AddRecyclingType	7075	13975938	0,0506%
AddToiletsFee	7367	13975938	0,0527%
MarkCompletedBuildingConstruction	7492	13975938	0,0536%
AddFireHydrantPosition	9948	13975938	0,0712%
AddRecyclingContainerMaterials	11610	13975938	0,0831%
AddVegetarian	11861	13975938	0,0849%
AddFireHydrantType	11906	13975938	0,0852%
AddBridgeStructure	12060	13975938	0,0863%
AddCrossing	16934	13975938	0,1212%
AddPostboxCollectionTimes	17080	13975938	0,1222%
AddBollardType	18123	13975938	0,1297%
AddPitchLit	19606	13975938	0,1403%
AddRailwayCrossingBarrier	20071	13975938	0,1436%
AddBikeParkingType	20437	13975938	0,1462%
AddPitchSurface	22116	13975938	0,1582%
AddMaxWeight	22556	13975938	0,1614%
AddCyclewaySegregation	25751	13975938	0,1843%
AddBikeParkingCapacity	26817	13975938	0,1919%
AddProhibitedForPedestrians	27273	13975938	0,1951%
AddCyclewayPartSurface	28265	13975938	0,2022%
AddShoulder	28278	13975938	0,2023%
AddFootwayPartSurface	28794	13975938	0,2060%
AddBikeParkingCover	31671	13975938	0,2266%
AddPathSmoothness	33433	13975938	0,2392%
AddPlaygroundAccess	35503	13975938	0,2540%
MarkCompletedHighwayConstruction	40526	13975938	0,2900%
AddStepCount	41660	13975938	0,2981%
AddTracktype	41834	13975938	0,2993%
AddKerbHeight	42755	13975938	0,3059%
AddMaxHeight	43728	13975938	0,3129%
AddRoadSmoothness	44434	13975938	0,3179%
AddTactilePavingKerb	44713	13975938	0,3199%
AddPlaceName	46825	13975938	0,3350%
AddStepsIncline	49162	13975938	0,3518%
AddPowerPolesMaterial	62784	13975938	0,4492%
AddWheelchairAccessBusiness	63226	13975938	0,4524%
AddTrafficSignalsVibration	63457	13975938	0,4540%
AddTrafficSignalsSound	69883	13975938	0,5000%
AddBusStopLit	70486	13975938	0,5043%
AddHandrail	72727	13975938	0,5204%
AddTrafficSignalsButton	75446	13975938	0,5398%
AddStepsRamp	77822	13975938	0,5568%
AddBinStatusOnBusStop	82291	13975938	0,5888%
AddForestLeafType	88295	13975938	0,6318%
AddRoadName	93765	13975938	0,6709%
AddBenchStatusOnBusStop	94389	13975938	0,6754%
AddBenchBackrest	98525	13975938	0,7050%
AddParkingFee	100644	13975938	0,7201%
AddBusStopShelter	107404	13975938	0,7685%
AddParkingType	108408	13975938	0,7757%
AddTactilePavingBusStop	119748	13975938	0,8568%
CheckExistence	124524	13975938	0,8910%
AddParkingAccess	141111	13975938	1,0097%
AddCrossingType	145072	13975938	1,0380%
AddOpeningHours	160341	13975938	1,1473%
AddCrossingIsland	170003	13975938	1,2164%
AddMaxSpeed	190915	13975938	1,3660%
AddAddressStreet	268936	13975938	1,9243%
AddTactilePavingCrosswalk	283199	13975938	2,0263%
AddLanes	325145	13975938	2,3265%
AddSidewalk	427435	13975938	3,0584%
AddHousenumber	441068	13975938	3,1559%
AddCycleway	448175	13975938	3,2068%
AddRoofShape	850171	13975938	6,0831%
AddPathSurface	999441	13975938	7,1512%
AddBuildingLevels	1379383	13975938	9,8697%
AddWayLit	1541163	13975938	11,0273%
AddRoadSurface	1726590	13975938	12,3540%
AddBuildingType	1889532	13975938	13,5199%

What can we take away from these statistics?

We can see very well that StreetComplete is quite undiversified in terms of its use and its users. Few people are responsible for the majority of all solved quests. Mainly StreetComplete is used to add details to houses, streets and roads. This doesn’t seem too surprising, since a city consists mostly of houses, streets and roads. In this respect, it is not a big deal that a large part of the solved quests are also related to these object types. As for the users, it looks a little different: Of the 5000+ users I examined, 100 are responsible for 30% of all quests solved. And while in the video version of this post I conclude that this is an indication of the not-so-good-looking diversification in OpenStreetMap, I’ve since done some more thinking and come to a different conclusion. You have to count out the power users much more than aligning the other users with them. So the average user doesn’t do proportionally little, but the power users do proportionally a lot. Looking at it this way, StreetComplete has a good user base that contributes relatively evenly to OpenStreetMap.