Lima Cómo Vamos — a Long-Running Citizen Data Observatory for Urban Quality of Life

Lima Cómo Vamos is a citizen data observatory founded in 2010 by Asociación UNACEM, Grupo RPP and the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP), with annual fieldwork run by PUCP's Institute of Public Opinion. It surveys a representative sample of roughly 2,000 residents of Metropolitan Lima and Callao each year.

The observatory tracks residents' satisfaction with dimensions of urban life -- pollution, transport, sanitation, public space, safety and citizen culture among them -- publishing the results as an open Urban Perception Report.

Now in its 15th edition, the report is supplemented by thematic studies such as a January 2026 diagnosis of mototaxi mobility. Lima Cómo Vamos is one of dozens of independently-run 'Cómo Vamos' citizen observatories operating across Latin American cities under a shared methodology, and is a member of the UN-Habitat-linked World Urban Campaign, with funders and partners spanning private companies (UNACEM, RPP, Uber, Lima Expresa) and academia (PUCP).

A peer-reviewed 2022 study, part of a Wellcome Trust-supported research project, analysed the 2010-2019 series and found satisfaction had declined across nearly all measured dimensions -- air-quality satisfaction fell 6.5 percentage points and green-space satisfaction roughly halved -- with residents in lower socioeconomic brackets (D/E) showing steeper declines and consistently worse ratings than higher-income residents (A/B). The most recent (15th) edition reported that 87% of respondents were dissatisfied with citizen security, against 4.1% satisfied.

The 2010-2019 analysis found the gap between socioeconomic groups widened over the decade, indicating that citywide quality-of-life gains, where they occurred, were not shared evenly.