This dataset contains data gathered from research on documents of formalized urban data governance in German small towns (population < 20,000). Data was collected through a systematic online research approach applied to a quota sample of nearly a sixth of all German small towns, drawn based on the Thünen Typology (Küpper, 2016), as well as for all rural districts. The dataset contains several components: Main Research Dataset: The core of the dataset ("16 Research Dataset RD_2.0 results.xlsx", XLSX format) and an interactive map visualization of these results ("11 Results_Interactive Map.html", HTML format). Research Documents: These provide details on the research process such as criteria, summary of results for metropolitan regions, procedure description, protocol of the online research and the research design scheme (files 01-04 and file 06, all in PDF format), deduction and definition of categories for content analysis ("05 Deduction and Definition Categories Urban Development.xlsx", XLSX format), and results from a parallel rating for rater reliability assessment ("15 Results Parallel Data Governance Rating.xlsx", XLSX format). Jupyter Notebooks: A collection of notebooks including relevant input datasets (files 08-10 and files 12-14, each compressed in ZIP files) utilized for sample drawing, result analysis, and rater reliability calculations. Data Processing Scheme: An overall diagram of the research data processing workflow ("07 Research Data Processing Scheme.pdf", PDF format). The primary aim of the dataset is to assess formalized urban data governance in German small towns and rural districts and ensure transparency and reproducibility of the research process. Due to privacy and confidentiality considerations, the transcripts of expert interviews conducted for methodological reflection are not included. The dataset is released under CC-BY 4.0. This dataset supports the publication: [Higi, L., Schröder, T., Weidner, S., and Neuroth, H. (2025, in press): "Taking Stock of Urban Data Governance in German Small Towns", DOI:xxx] Reference Küpper, P. (2016). Abgrenzung und Typisierung ländlicher Räume, Thünen Working Paper 68. http://literatur.thuenen.de/digbib_extern/dn057783.pdf Acknowledgement The author of this data publication would like to thank Philip Wiemer (University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, Master Program Urban Futures) for his extensive support in data generation, data cleaning, and data annotation.