Downscaling the Doughnut: Data Portraits in action

Version 2.3 (April 2025)

Overview

This page showcases examples by practitioners who have applied DEAL’s data-led approach to creating 'Doughnut Data Portraits' in a growing number of places worldwide. The content is also available as a PDF below, and will be updated with practical links and stories on an ongoing basis.

The Doughnut Data Portrait tool is a methodological handbook of approaches for collecting place-based targets and indicators across four crucial ‘lenses’ that arise from combining two domains (social and ecological) and two scales (local and global). The latest version was published in April 2022 as part of a set of five ‘Doughnut Unrolled’ tools.

If you’re working on a Doughnut Data Portrait for your place, or considering doing so, please do get in touch by selecting the ‘Research & Data Analysis’ category on DEAL’s Contact Form. At least as importantly, please do share your experience, results, and lessons learned as a Story on the DEAL Community platform when you’re ready, so that it can inspire and inform the work of others.

To learn more about the broader concepts, tools and stories in action at the scale of towns, cities and regions - beyond creating Data Portraits alone - see DEAL's Cities & Regions page. In particular, DEAL recommends checking out the ‘Cities & Regions: Let’s Get Started’ report (available in English, French, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese), which describes nine ways that places are engaging with Doughnut Economics, with in-depth case studies on many of the initiatives listed below.

Getting started - the core data-led methodology

Doughnut Data Portraits: A Methodological Guide

Overall, the aim of the Data Portrait is to provide a holistic data-led snapshot of a place’s performance that combines local aspirations – to be thriving people in a thriving place – with global connections – both social and ecological – that require every place to consider its many complex interconnections with the world in which it is embedded.

This methodological handbook presents a step-by-step approach to developing a holistic data-driven Portrait of a city or a place (with an accompanying illustrative spreadsheet). It includes an explainer video, useful resources, inspiring examples, and things for analysts to keep in mind - drawing from the work of changemakers around the world, and bringing in global South perspectives gathered through a series of co-creative workshops.

Examples of places creating Doughnut Data Portraits

Since the Portrait methodology was first published in 2020, many cities, regions, towns and communities have begun developing their own Data Portraits. The initiatives listed below (in alphabetical order) have sometimes been led by local governments, and sometimes by self-organised networks, communities or organisations, each bringing new learning and perspectives. DEAL will keep adding new ones to this list, as they become available.
 
Amsterdam's City Doughnut Portrait

Amsterdam was the first city to adopt the Doughnut as a compass for guiding its commitment to become a circular city by 2050. The Amsterdam City Doughnut was the first public presentation of DEAL’s Data Portrait approach, published in April 2020. The City has included an updated version of their Portrait results in their biennial 'State of the City 2020-2021' report, with plans to continue such monitoring in-house on an ongoing basis.

Barcelona City Portrait (available in Catalan)
The municipality of Barcelona committed to develop a Data Portrait in 2022, working with Barcelona Regional and Universitat de Barcelona, as part of the city’s wider work with Doughnut Economics. The Barcelona Donut findings underpin the Citizens Commitment for a More Sustainable Barcelona 2024 - 2034. Stories about Barcelona’s journey are available on DEAL's platform, including methodological insights,  the process, and a video presentation.

Birmingham - Neighbourhood Doughnut Portrait in Ladywood
CIVIC SQUARE produced a first neighbourhood-scale Portrait for Ladywood (Birmingham) in 2022, alongside a Community Portrait of a Place, including a treasure trove  of data, insights, and lessons learned from their journey.

Bannau Brycheiniog (Wales) Park Doughnut

The Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) national park authority developed an online interactive ‘Park Doughnut’ in 2023 to visualise the current state of the park with respect to the ideal implementation of their Statutory Purposes and Duty.
 
Brussels Capital Region Portraits (available in English, French, and Dutch)
The Brussels Donut project developed a first Data Portrait in 2021 for the Brussels Capital Region, and published an updated Data Portrait in 2023 (with an accompanying spreadsheet) during a second phase. Their work engaging with the Doughnut has evolved into the BeDonut initiative.

California Doughnut Snapshot

The California Doughnut Economics Coalition (CalDEC) developed a first Data Portrait for California published in 2024, with plans to develop a Doughnut City Portrait for San Jose, among other activities. More information, tools, and stories from CalDEC are available here. 

Copenhagen Portraits

In June 2020, the City Council of Copenhagen instructed the administration to investigate the applicability of Doughnut Economics in the city. Since 2023, the municipality has been producing an annual Doughnut City Portrait (currently available for 2023, and 2024) as an informational tool, informing the prioritisation of projects in budget discussions, and helping identify areas with ‘need for solutions’ where action needs to be taken.

Cornwall Plan 2020-2050

The Cornwall Plan was adopted in 2020 and includes an outcomes framework assessing the state and progress of social and environmental conditions across Cornwall based on the dimensions of the Doughnut. A first assessment was published in 2021, which has been updated on an annual basis (all reviews are available here), and the most recent version is available on this interactive webpage.

Doughnut Data Portraits in global South contexts
A repository of learnings (including recordings, presentations, and working documents) from a series of 6 co-creative workshops hosted by DEAL between April and June 2021 with a team of 20+ contributors to adapt the Data Portrait methodology so that it is relevant and useful to global South priorities and interests.

Edinburgh Data Portrait

This master thesis, submitted in 2020, applies the Data Portrait methodology to Edinburgh.

El Monte (Chile) City Data Portrait 
Entramadas supported El Monte Municipality to develop a Data Portrait in 2021 ‘in order to provide concrete tools for facing ecological degradation and social disparities’.

Geneva City Portrait

The Greater Geneva Doughnut Portrait (in French) was published in 2022 by researchers at the Université de Lausanne, at the request of elected officials, and as part of an EU-funded transboundary project between France and Switzerland. The results underpin the Greater Geneva in Transition Charter, signed in 2023, which sets 10 ecological and social objectives for the region in 2050. Valuable insights and lessons learned are compiled in this scientific study.

Glasgow Thriving Portrait
Researchers at the University of Glasgow, in partnership with Glasgow City Council, have been developing a Data Portrait through a series of workshops and desk-based research. A Thriving Glasgow Portrait report was published in 2023. More details are available in this story, and a video presentation is here.

Grenoble (France) Doughnut Portrait

In 2022, Grenoble City Council voted to launch ‘Grenoble 2040’ with the Doughnut as a compass for envisioning a thriving city future in 2040. The municipality also published their first Data Portrait in 2022 (available in French and in English), with plans to update and publish a second version in 2025, among other activities that adopt the Doughnut as a compass. 

Leeds (England) Doughnut City Portrait
Climate Action Leeds published a Data Portrait in 2022 (including a summary and long report) as a ‘first step towards creating a city plan that will enable them to create a zero carbon, nature friendly, socially just Leeds by the 2030s’. This master thesis submitted in 2021 dives deeper into the process and findings of the Portrait. This master thesis submitted in 2021 focuses on how the Leeds Doughnut could help advance climate justice from a decolonial perspective.

London City Portrait

The London Doughnut Economy Coalition (LDEC) produced its first Data Portrait in 2022 ‘to provoke discussion and action in the city’s neighbourhoods and the city as a whole’. LDEC plans to update their London City Portrait, including to develop data-led Neighbourhood Doughnuts. Further details on LDEC activities are available here.

Melbourne City Portrait

Regen Melbourne published a first version of the Greater Melbourne City Portrait on Global Doughnut Day in November 2023.  Alongside the data-driven Doughnut available on an online interactive platform, there is a detailed description of the methodology, and a series of Stories that highlight regeneration in action. Further details are available here.

Middlesbrough (England) Doughnut Portrait

The Boro Doughnut community action network created a first version of the Middlesbrough Data Portrait in 2023 , with plans to publish an updated version in 2025, among other inspiring community-led initiatives that connect people for action. Further details are available here. 

Nanaimo (Canada) Monitoring Strategy

In 2020, Nanaimo Council voted to “adopt the Doughnut Economics Model as a cohesive vision for all city initiatives and planning processes”. Since then, the municipality has embedded the Doughnut into its 25-year city plan, Nanaimo Reimagined, and its Integrated Action Plan, which are supported by a coherent set of targets and indicators visualised in an online ‘Nanaimo Monitoring Bar’, which was adopted in 2024 and will be updated on an ongoing basis.

Oxfordshire (England) Data Portrait of Place

A comprehensive Doughnut Data Portrait commissioned by Oxfordshire County Council was published in 2024 by a project team of analysts, officials, and practitioners, in collaboration with Oxfordshire Doughnut Economics Collective. Further details are available here.

Rhein-Kreiss Neuss (Germany) District Portrait

A first version of the Rhein-Kreiss Neuss Doughnut Data Portrait was developed collaboratively by the district administration, the German Institute of Urban Affairs, and Next Economy Lab in 2025. 

Riga (Latvia) Doughnut City Portrait

In 2025, the municipality of Riga published a comprehensive Doughnut City Portrait (including a summary and long report), as part of a 2-year project ‘A Doughnut Economics Approach to Sustainable Decarbonisation and Citizen Engagement’, in collaboration with the NGO Green Liberty and Regenalyze.   

Tampere Region (Finland) Data Portrait
The Tampere region developed their Data Portrait in 2022. Here is the full master thesis (in Finnish) that it was based on.

Tomelilla (Sweden) City Portrait
As part of their ongoing work with Doughnut Economics, in 2023 the municipality of Tomelilla published a first ‘City Portrait of Tomelilla: Sustainable Development and Quality of Life’ progress report, which will be updated on an annual basis.

University of Lausanne (Switzerland) Doughnut Portrait

The administration of the University of Lausanne (UNIL) published a first version of the UNIL Doughnut in 2023, and a second version with updated results was published in 2024. This is a pioneering initiative applying the Data Portrait methodology to a place-based institution (i.e. a university). Further details are available in English here. 

Wellington (Aotearoa/New Zealand) Portrait

Since 2022, Wellington City Council has been exploring the potential of Doughnut Economics as a strategic compass to support the delivery of the city strategy and vision. As part of this internal exploration, a preliminary Wellington Doughnut Portrait has been drafted, in collaboration with Pocketknife and MOTIF. A video presentation from 2024 is available here.

Yerevan (Armenia) City Data Portrait

UNDP’s Innovation Lab in Armenia supported the Yerevan Municipality to create a Data Portrait in 2022, including a qualitative data-led ‘Yerevan City Selfie’.

Doughnut Unrolled tools

The potential of the Data Portrait as a transformative tool can be best realised when put into practice together with a wide range of participatory tools and methods, bringing government, business, and academia together with innovators from community networks, the commons, and start-ups. In April 2022, the DEAL Team launched a set of five ‘Doughnut Unrolled’ tools that expand upon and enrich the data-led focus of the first City Portrait methodology.

These tools contain a wealth of useful content, such as slides that you can use to learn about the concepts and use in your presentations, workshop methods and guidance to help you design your own participatory processes and approaches, and both online and printable canvases that you can use if running either an online or an in-person workshop (or a hybrid format). DEAL invites practitioners to use and adapt these tools for your own initiatives - and to share back your experience and learning!

Other approaches to downscaling the Doughnut

DEAL believes the Data Portrait methodology represents the most holistic data-led approach so far to translate the Doughnut into a tool for place-based thinking, decision-making, and action, while recognizing the very diverse realities of places worldwide. At the same time, the Doughnut has gained considerable international attention since it was first published in 2012, and it has been downscaled in a range of ways since then. A selection of these other approaches and valuable contributions can be found below.

National Doughnuts Data Explorer

This interactive website hosted by the University of Leeds provides visualisations of national performance with respect to the Doughnut for over 150 countries, based on internationally comparable data.

A compass for the EU towards 2030

This report published by the ZOE Institute in 2021 presents a set of 30 indicators and corresponding targets for EU countries visualised in a Doughnut, based on an in-depth analysis of existing EU dashboards, and  accompanied by a spreadsheet inventory of ~450 indicators.

Devon Doughnut

An interactive website hosted by the Devon Doughnut Collective with innovative ‘twin-track‘ indicators to measure Devon’s social and ecological health, collected from both official sources and residents.

Koeksister Project (South Africa)

The NGO Green Connection has launched the Doughnut-inspired ‘Koeksister Project’ in 2022 (a koeksister is a ‘braided’ doughnut typical in South Africa). As part of their community-led actions, the project has also produced data-led Doughnut reports for Saldanha Bay Municipality in 2022, and for South Africa and provinces in 2023. 

Welsh Doughnut by Oxfam Cymru

Oxfam's approach to downscaling the Doughnut, brought to life in Wales.

List of academic articles engaging with Doughnut Economics

A list of academic studies engaging with the core concepts and applications of Doughnut Economics, including different approaches to downscaling other than the Data Portrait, from South Africa, China and the EU to India and the UK. For additional research-led insights, check out DEAL’s Research & Academia theme.

Acknowledgements

This version of the tool was created by Andrew Fanning, with contributions from Leonora Grcheva and Kate Raworth.