How the 311 numbers work

Everything comes from public requests on SeeClickFix, the city's service request system.

What's collected

Every public request since January 2024, plus older ones still open, checked daily.
Public Works requests only, such as potholes, trash and recycling pickups, streetlights, signs, and trees. Parking and police requests aren't included yet.
For each one: category, location, and when it was submitted, acknowledged, closed, or reopened.
Not collected: descriptions, photos, or who submitted it.
Private requests and internal work orders aren't public, so they aren't counted. Requests later deleted or made private are removed.

New: Submitted, not yet acknowledged. Counts as open.
Acknowledged: City staff marked it as seen. Still counts as open. Only staff can do this.
Closed: Marked resolved. Anyone with an account can close a request, including the person who reported it.
Archived: Closed requests are archived after 7 days. Counts as closed.

Time to acknowledge: Submission to staff acknowledgment. Since only staff can acknowledge, this is the most direct measure of the city's response. Requests never acknowledged are left out, so the share that were acknowledged is shown alongside it. Many requests are closed without being acknowledged first.
Time to close: Submission to the latest close. If a request was archived without a close time, the archive time is used. Requests still open are left out, so the typical time to close is for closed requests only.
No update in over a year: An open request whose last change on SeeClickFix (a status change, comment, or edit) was more than a year ago. Some may have been fixed and never closed; others may never have been handled. The data doesn't show which. They still count as open.
Typical (median): Half took less time, half took more. Unlike an average, a few very old requests don't skew it.
1 in 10 took over: The 90th percentile: how long the slowest requests take.
Ward: Based on the request's map location and the 2022 NH GRANIT ward boundaries (opens in new tab).
Per 1,000 residents: Requests divided by the ward's 2020 census population, times 1,000. Ward populations come from the census, so they differ slightly from the state's newer citywide estimate used on the budget page.

Locations shown: Addresses, intersections, and landmarks are shown as they appear on SeeClickFix. Every public request can appear on the maps and lists, in every category. Requests without a map location are listed but not mapped.
Repeat location: Requests in the same category within 50 meters and 60 days of each other, in a chain, count as one place. A place is listed when a request there came in after an earlier request at that place was closed. Past 12 months.
Map: Points are placed within about 10 meters. Map data from OpenStreetMap (opens in new tab). Every place on a map is also listed on the page.

A closed request isn't always a fixed problem. Duplicates and requests outside the city's responsibility also get closed.
Some departments use SeeClickFix more than others.
Ward differences reflect how often people report problems, not only how the city responds.
Recent months will change as requests close.
A repeat location isn't always the same problem. It can be a problem that came back, a fix that didn't hold, or a separate problem nearby.
Numbers based on fewer than 5 requests aren't shown.