As of 2015, over 1,500 instances of participatory budgeting (PB) have been implemented across the five continents. While the democratic spirit of PB remains the same throughout the world, institutional variations abound.
For example, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Peru have implemented participatory budgeting in all local governments, and a number of towns and cities in Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain have also initiated participatory budgeting processes.. In Canada, participatory budgeting has been implemented with public housing, neighbourhood groups, and public schools, in the cities of Toronto, Guelph, Hamilton,. and West Vancouver. Since its emergence in Porto Alegre, participatory budgeting has spread to hundreds of Latin American cities, and dozens of cities in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. In some cities, participatory budgeting has been applied for school, university, and public housing budgets. In France, the Region Poitou-Charentes is notable for launching participatory budgeting in its secondary schools.. These international approaches differ significantly, and they are shaped as much by their local contexts as by the Porto Alegre model..
Latin America
Brazil Participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre occurs annually, starting with a series of neighborhood, regional, and citywide assemblies, where residents and elected budget delegates identify spending priorities and vote on which priorities to implement. Porto Alegre spends about 200 million dollars per year on construction and services, this money is subject to participatory budgeting. Annual spending on fixed expenses, such as debt service and pensions, is not subject to public participation. Around fifty thousand residents of Porto Alegre now take part in the participatory budgeting process (compared to 1.5 million city inhabitants), with the number of participants growing year on year since 1989. Participants are from diverse economic and political backgrounds.
The participatory budgeting cycle starts in January and assemblies across the city facilitate maximum participation and interaction. Each February there is instruction from city specialists in technical and system aspects of city budgeting. In March there are plenary assemblies in each of the city's 16 districts as well as assemblies dealing with such areas as transportation, health, education, sports, and economic development. These large meetings—with participation that can reach over 1,000—elect delegates to represent specific neighborhoods. The mayor and staff attend to respond to citizen concerns. In the following months, delegates meet weekly or biweekly in each district to review technical project criteria and district needs. City department staff may participate according to their area of expertise. At a second regional plenary, regional delegates prioritize the district's demands and elect 42 councillors representing all districts and thematic areas to serve on the Municipal Council of the Budget. The main function of the Municipal Council of the Budget is to reconcile the demands of each district with available resources, and to propose and approve an overall municipal budget. The resulting budget is binding, though the city council can suggest, but not require changes. Only the Mayor may veto the budget, or remand it back to the Municipal Council of the Budget (this has never happened).
Argentina
Rosario The city of Rosario in Argentina began using participatory budgeting in 2002. Notably, the municipality has aimed for gender parity in the participatory budgeting process and has sought to make all participants more sensitive of gender issues and the impact of the participatory budgeting projects on these issues.
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires adopted the PB process in 2001 hoping to emerge a political economy. There were manipulators like people watching the system and third parties forming for or against the PB system. Buenos aires used a system where the communities allocated where the government would take action first by ranking where the cities resources would go. After participation decreased by 50% in the 2005 cycle, PB came to an end and "the new communes" emerged.
Europe
Finland The City of Helsinki started its citizen budget process in 2018. The first round was conducted in 2019. The OmaStadi-process ("MyOwnHelsinki") consists of four stages: First, citizens make proposals in the areas of ecology, culture, outdoors, nature, built environment and community. In the second stage, the city administration adapts the proposals to the city's standards and equips them with a budget. Third, citizens allocate the available budget according to their personal preferences in a vote. Finally, the city implements the most highly ranked proposals in consultation with the original initiators as far as the budget suffices.
In 2021, a citizen budget of €8.8 Mio. is allocated through the OmaStadi-process. This equals about 0.2 percent of the city's budget (€5000 Mio. in 2021). 1.8 Mio Euro are spend on measures concerning the whole city, €7 Mio. are distributed on the district level. Citizens can vote on both levels. Every Helsinki citizen aged at least 12 years can participate. Voting takes place through a personalised internet access. People with difficulties using the internet can turn to help points, e.g. at local libraries.
The City of Turku spends €1 Mio. on its citizen's budget for 2020. About 3000 citizens participated and voted for 52 projects out of 239 proposals. The City of Tampere started its first participatory budget in 2020. A sum of €0.45 Mio. is focussed on supporting children's and youth's urban environment. The City of Lahti devotes a budget of €200,000 for the year 2022. The City of Vantaa spends a budget of €50,000 for the year 2021. The budget focuses on city districts. The City of Oulu spends a budget of €50,000 for the year 2021.
Hungary Participatory budgeting was introduced in Hungary after 2019, the effort mainly spearheaded by the Two-Tailed Dog Party. The largest participatory budget is organized in the capital Budapest, in addition to the PB initiatives to several capital districts and some municipalities.
Budapest In Budapest, the first year of (capital-wide) participatory budgeting started in 2019 (részvételi költségvetés), subsequently it was rebranded as 'community budgeting' (közösségi költségvetés). The yearly budget on the capital level is 1 billion HUF (about 2500 thousand euros). The final stage is always a direct vote, which is preceded by idea submission and filtering rounds (which originally included a citizens assembly stage). The minimum age for voting is 14 and balloting is possible online (accounting for a large majority of votes) and in person.
Iceland The Better Neighbourhoods participatory budgeting project of the wider citizen sourcing Better Reykjavik project of the City of Reykjavik was established in 2011. Nearly 2 million Euros (300 million ISK) has been allocated each year with over citizen proposed 100 projects funded most years. The project is mostly driven by digital participation with secure electronic voting.
Latvia Latvian capital Rīga first introduced participatory budgeting project in 2019, and continues to hold an annual knapsack vote to determine projects to be carried out. As of 2025, EUR 250,000 per project is allocated to infrastructure projects, EUR 250,000 per project to courtyards and EUR 50,000 per project to social innovation or non-material projects.
In 2025, Mārupe municipality held its first participatory budgeting project.
Poland
Wieliczka Wieliczka is a Polish town with about 26,000 residents. In 2023 it initiated a PB process using a novel aggregation rule, the method of equal shares, which aims to guarantee justified representation to all groups in the population. The program was called the Zielony Milion – Green Million, as the total allocated budget was 1,000,000 PLN, and the focus was on environmental projects. The project timeline was:
3.3.2023: information and education campaign. 8.3 - 25.3: submissions of project proposals. At this step, 89 proposals were submitted. 25.3 - 31.3: verification of submitted projects. At this step, 25 proposals were rejected and 64 proposals were retained. 31.3: the retained projects were presented to the public. The projects were presented both in text (explaining the project details) and on a map. 3.4 - 22.4: the public could vote on the projects that they support. The voting format was approval ballot. 6586 residents participated in the voting, of whom: 3582 women and 3004 men; 28% under 30, 37% between 31 and 45, 19% between 46 and 60, and 16% above 30. 3328 voted for one project only; 1456 voted for two projects; 553 voter for 3 projects, etc.; 91 voted for 14 or more projects. 26.4: the results were announced: 30 projects won. The computation used the method of equal shares, and a detailed technical report was published, to show to process of computation. Examples of winning projects include: purchasing 10 photo-traps against garbage-trucks and wild landfills (5000 PLN); revitalization of green areas in Choragwica by planting (100,000 PLN); Creation of recreational conditions for the inhabitants of Węgrzce Wielkie (85,000 PLN); installing breeding booths for birds (600 PLN). Afterwards, a survey was conducted, asking people whether they prefer the new aggregation rule to the more common rule of approval voting, and what ballot format they prefer.
Romania
Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca has implemented a pilot project in 2013, limited to one of its districts, followed by 2 Youth Participatory Budgeting experiments in 2015 and 2016.
In July 2017 the city launched an online PB platform (bugetareparticipativa.ro), voting being restricted by geolocation – to users located within Cluj-Napoca. Projects were to be proposed by residents, following some specific areas:The project proposals must target specific areas such as walks, sidewalks and pedestrian areas, mobility, accessibility and traffic safety, green areas and playgrounds, arrangement of public spaces (urban furniture, public lightning), educational and cultural infrastructure, and “the digital city.”Each year, the top 15 most voted projects can each receive a budget of maximum €150,000
Spain Participatory budgeting projects in Spain accelerated in the early 2000s, typically as a result of left-wing party advocacy. Left-wing municipal governments established participatory budgeting exercises in "Sevilla, Albacete, San Sebastián, Getafe, Leganés, Sabadell, Leganés, Segovia, Torrellano, Elche, Algeciras [and] Novelda." Other municipalities that have implemented participatory budgeting at some point include "Puente Genil, Cabezas de San Juan and Rubi." As one of the first participatory budgeting experiments in Europe, participatory budgeting in Córdoba was influenced by other participatory exercises and originated from resistance to the Franco dictatorship in the 1970s and the experience in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Although participatory budgeting experiments across Spain seemed to provide deliberate spaces for participation of citizens, Ganuza and Francés (2014) suggest that these experiments decreased in number through 2010 because municipal governments did not change their decision-making processes to accommodate greater citizen involvement. For example, the experiment in Córdoba was pushed by the municipal government and associations and only impacted up to 5% of the municipal budget. Pineda Nebot (2009) elaborates that local governments across Spain struggle to coordinate between citizens who recommend specific spending priorities and the bureaucracy that implements the budget.