Data are one of the most valuable resources in today’s societies, economies and governments. Open government data (OGD) policies are set on ideas and principles that centre on making data from public bodies available to everyone in open, free and accessible formats. Practices from OECD countries show that access to government data can foster social participation, business opportunities, and innovation, creating added value from existing information.
The Open Useful Re-usable data (OURdata) Index assesses and benchmarks open government data policies and their implementation. It ranges from 0 to 1, 0 being the lowest score and 1 the highest. It is composed of three indicators, which have an equal weight of 0.33: data availability, data accessibility and government support for data re-use. Each indicator ranges from 0 to 0.33.
The results of the 2019 OURdata Index reveal an overall growing maturity in terms of OGD. The OECD average increased from 0.53 in 2017 to 0.60 in 2019, driven by improvements in the three indicators: data availability increased from 0.18 in 2017 to 0.20 in 2019, data accessibility from 0.21 to 0.23; and government support from 0.15 to 0.17.
Previously low performing countries are starting to catch up to frontrunners such as Korea (total score 0.93), France (0.90) and Japan (0.75). Ireland’s National Open Data Strategy, Poland’s Public Open Data Programme, and Slovenia’s Public Administration Development Strategy are examples of strategies that have resulted in great progress. Other countries have sustained their progress since 2017, including the Netherlands and Canada, scoring 0.65 and 0.73 respectively in 2019. In contrast, Finland and the United Kingdom, who were among the top in 2017, now perform more poorly, explained by shifts in political priorities, reallocation of policy responsibility and decreasing overall support.
Stronger policy frameworks, and an increasing understanding of the value of stakeholder engagement, have increased data availability in most OECD countries. Australia stands out with an increase from 0.14 in 2017 to 0.24 in 2019, largely due to a higher level of stakeholder engagement for data release. Although, in general, there was only a slight improvement on the number of available datasets, some countries have prioritised a “publish with purpose” approach, i.e. publishing government datasets that are of higher value for citizens and businesses as open data (for instance, business registers, weather data, and state budget data)- most notably Australia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia.
Data accessibility is strong across OECD countries. As in 2017, Austria (0.32), Colombia (0.32) and France (0.31) are leaders in the area. Today, 30 out of 33 OECD countries require government data to be available free of charge; 29 require data to be available with an open licence, and 31 require data to be provided in machine-readable formats. The advancement of OGD portals has also contributed to increased levels of interaction with users for data quality and completeness.
In general, governments have also intensified their efforts to support the reuse of OGD. For example, 21 out of 33 OECD countries, are prioritising building skills and capacities within the public administration. Compared to 2017, more countries are exploring the potential impacts of OGD through research or by collecting re-use examples. Nevertheless, the support for OGD reuse among citizens, businesses and other external stakeholders has remained constant.
