Boston 311 by the Numbers: 266,778 Requests in 2026 and How to File One

Boston residents, city workers and 311 call takers opened 266,778 Boston 311 service requests between Jan. 1 and Oct. 29, 2026, according to The Boston Report’s analysis of the city’s open data on Analyze Boston. Parking complaints led the list, winter storms produced a spike in January and February, and the city has moved most new cases onto a new 311 system this year. Here is what the numbers show, and how to file a request that gets to the right team.

Boston 311 by the numbers in 2026

The city is in the middle of replacing the software behind 311. Boston adopted its current system in 2008, and the city’s Boston Digital Service says it is replacing the older Lagan platform with Creatio, a cloud-based case management system, linked to Cartegraph, which tracks city assets such as streetlights, signs and trees. The city expects the full change to be finished by the end of 2026. During the switch, Analyze Boston publishes cases in two datasets, depending on the type of request: a legacy 2026 file and a “new system” file. The city notes that the two are meant to be used together.

The Boston Report added both. The legacy file holds 191,211 requests opened from Jan. 1 through Oct. 29, and the new system holds 75,567 for the same dates, for a combined 266,778. For the same stretch of 2025, the two files hold 239,779 and 1,609 requests, or 241,388 in total. That makes 2026 about 25,390 requests, or 10.5%, ahead of last year so far (TBR calculations from city data). The city’s own description of 311 says more than 1,000 requests a day flow through the system, which matches the roughly 880 a day in the combined file once you include weekends.

The monthly pattern shows the handoff. In January, 96% of new cases still landed in the legacy system. By October, about three of every four went to the new one. Total monthly volume stayed between about 22,000 and 31,500.

What Bostonians report most

Parking enforcement is by far the largest single request type, with 52,623 cases in the legacy file, or about one in five of all 2026 requests. That is up 2.3% from 51,434 in the same period of 2025. The new system also logged 3,327 “illegal parking” cases of its own. For anyone who parks on the street, our guide to Boston resident parking permits covers who qualifies and what the fines are.

Winter left the biggest mark. Requests for snow plowing reached 12,724, compared with 608 in the same period of 2025, and complaints about unshoveled sidewalks nearly doubled, to 11,731 from 6,050. Of the 24,455 snow plowing and unshoveled sidewalk requests in 2026, 23,291, or 95%, came in January and February. With another winter coming, our Boston winter outlook for 2026-27 looks at what forecasters expect.

Other common requests include street cleaning (11,009), improper storage of trash barrels (10,950), litter and debris (10,730, a new-system category), pothole repair (8,428), needle pickup (6,800), “CE collection” as the city labels it (6,672) and rodent activity (5,488). Rats have also been a topic at City Hall, as we reported from the City Council’s rat hearing.

A caution on comparisons: because cases are moving between systems and the new system uses different category names, year-over-year changes for an individual request type can reflect the switch as well as real changes on the street. The snow and parking comparisons above use legacy categories that still appear in the legacy file in both years.

Who files, where, and how fast

Residents are not the only source. City staff opened 111,822 requests themselves, either logged as employee-generated or through the city worker app, or about 42% of the total. Requests filed through the BOS:311 app, which launched in 2009 as Citizens Connect, accounted for 109,790, or 41%. Phone calls made up 44,345, about 17%.

Dorchester produced the most requests in both systems, with 37,378 combined, or 14% of the citywide total. Neighborhood names differ slightly between the two files, so finer rankings are less reliable.

On timing, 172,315 requests, or 64.6%, were marked on time against the city’s target date, and the rest were marked overdue. The rate was 74.2% in the new system and 60.8% in the legacy system, though the two handle different mixes of request types, so the gap is not a direct measure of the new software.

How to file a Boston 311 request

• Call: dial 311 from a phone in Boston, or 617-635-4500 from anywhere. The center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Cell phone air time charges apply.
• Use the app: the free BOS:311 app lets you attach a photo and follow the status of your report.
• Go online or email: submit a request on the city’s 311 website, or email 311@boston.gov.
• Pick a category: the city’s list covers animals, trash and recycling, streets, parks and trees, housing and construction, public health, business and utilities. If nothing fits, the city says to choose “Other” and it will route the request.
• Track it: case numbers that are 12 digits long belong to the older system; numbers that start with “BCS-” belong to the new one. Analyze Boston links to a separate lookup for each.
• Emergencies go to 911: 311 is only for non-emergency services and information.

Sources

• City of Boston, Analyze Boston: 311 Service Requests (2026, 2025 and New System datasets)
• City of Boston: 311 Technology Modernization Project
• City of Boston: Boston 311

Additional sources

• City of Boston, New Urban Mechanics: BOS:311 App history
• Data notes: counts are requests opened Jan. 1 to Oct. 29 in each year, pulled from Analyze Boston on Oct. 31, 2026. The city said in August that some transitioned case types had been dropped from the legacy 2026 file and that the problem was fixed as of Aug. 25, 2026. Totals, shares and changes are The Boston Report’s calculations.