What is Data Freshness? Definition, Examples, and Best Practices

Data freshness is one of ten dimensions of data quality, and refers to the timeliness of data in relation to the present moment. It is crucial for businesses that rely on operational or decision-making purposes, as stale data can lead to costly mistakes or missed opportunities. To measure data freshness, various methods such as comparing latest timestamps against the present moment, verifying differences between a destination and source system, or corroborating with other pieces of data can be used. Anomaly detection is one way to ensure data freshness by identifying unexpected values or events in a dataset.