San Francisco City Department Hierarchy Codes

A reference list of department codes from the City of San Francisco's financial system, representing a flattened organizational hierarchy. The data includes nested Department Groups, Divisions, Sections, Units, Sub Units, and Departments, each with a code and name. It is maintained as needed and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Map the organizational hierarchy by linking Department Groups to their nested Divisions, Sections, and Units.
• Validate or join other city datasets using the standardized department codes as a key.
• Analyze the structure of city government by examining the depth and breadth of the nested units.

Strengths

• Data is sourced from the City of San Francisco's official financial system of record.
• Represents a complete, flattened hierarchy of city departments, capturing all nested organizational levels.
• Available in multiple machine-readable formats including CSV, JSON, RDF, and XML.

Limitations

• The exact number of rows and columns is unknown, making it difficult to assess the dataset's scale.
• Data changes as needed, indicating an irregular update schedule rather than a predictable frequency.
• The hierarchical flattening results in repeated codes across columns, which may require careful interpretation.

Provenance

Source

City of San Francisco

Collection Method

Maintained in the City's financial system of record.

Freshness

Updated as needed; last updated March 2026.

Geography

San Francisco, California, USA