Government data availability is at the core of open data policies. Greater availability is related to stronger and more sustainable open data agendas, interaction with stakeholders for data release, and publication of high-value datasets (as identified in the G8 Open Data Charter), such as data on infrastructure or business registers. A central/federal open government data portal enables users to find data easily, and creates a channel for the open data community to engage with the government.
The indicator on data availability ranges from 0 to 1, 0 being the lowest and 1 the highest score. It has three sub-indicators: content of the open by default policy; stakeholder engagement for data release; and implementation. Each is weighted equally with a maximum score of 0.33.
The OECD average of data availability increased from 0.53 in 2017 to 0.59 in 2019. The improvement is the result of more progressive open data agendas and frequent stakeholder consultations to inform open data policies. Most OECD countries increased their data availability, even those below the average, such as Chile whose score increased from 0.28 to 0.44, Switzerland whose score rose from 0.28 to 0.38 and Portugal whose score rose from 0.32 to 0.48.
Most OECD countries have upgraded the content of their open by default policies; hence, the average moved from 0.19 in 2017 to 0.22 in 2019. Those who recently adopted central/federal strategies, programmes, or laws devoted to open data improved the most, such as Poland, moving from 0.06 to 0.26, Ireland, from 0.13 to 0.25, and Germany, from 0.08 to 0.19.
All OECD countries have established explicit formal requirements for government data to be open by default, except for Austria and Sweden. Nevertheless, Austria is one of the best performers in terms of data accessibility (see Data accessibility, page 152). Despite embracing open by default principles, only half of OECD countries include the implementation of open data requirements (such as the provision of updated and machine-readable data) among the performance indicators for public sector organisations.
The OECD average of stakeholder engagement for data release increased from 0.18 in 2017 to 0.20 in 2019. Some countries have made improvements, for example Australia (from 0.07 to 0.23) and Denmark (from 0.03 to 0.17). In line with advancements of their open data plans, Slovenia (from 0.19 to 0.29) and Ireland (from 0.21 to 0.29) have also prioritised this area. The high performances of Japan and Korea (0.33) are a result of them imposing requirements for public sector organisations to conduct regular consultations with data users.
Since 2017, the quantity of available datasets has slightly increased; the OECD average of implementation moved from 0.16 to 0.18 in 2019. The Czech Republic and Slovenia have respectively increased their scores from 0.08 to 0.21 and from 0.08 to 0.20 by publishing high-value datasets such as zip codes and national/local maps. Denmark (0.02), Estonia (0.06) and Lithuania (0.04) still lack many important datasets, including open budget data. Canada is the OECD country with the most high-value datasets available, scoring 0.31.
