The Open Data Maturity Report 2021 is out!
Discover how European countries are performing in terms of open data
The Open Data Maturity (ODM) Report 2021 is out! This annual report shows the year-on-year progress achieved by European countries1 as they push forward open data publication and re-use. The ODM report presents a wealth of best practices from across Europe and in various industries that can be transferred to other national and local contexts.
From the first assessment in 2015, scores on the open data impact dimension improved the most, compared to the other dimensions. And in 2021 specifically, we see that many Member States are working on the implementation of the Open Data Directive and the COVID-19 pandemic continues to highlight the value and impact of open data in society.
According to researcher and co-author of the report, Daphne van Hesteren:
“It is interesting to see the countries’ increased focus on understanding and measuring open data impact as it contributes to reap the full potential of open data re-use. The numerous open data-driven dashboards and initiatives related to the COVID-19 pandemic are great examples of how impact can be created by open data.”
Apart for measuring progress, this benchmarking exercise is also a way for the European countries to learn from each other and find new ways to create impact with open data.
“In fact, the creation of impact with the help of open data can be considered the ultimate goal of open data efforts across Europe”, said researcher and co-author of the report, Laura van Knippenberg. “We want to have the right policies in place, advanced portals available to find data and foster interaction between publishers and re-users, and we want this data to be of such a quality that re-use is made easier, so that in the end, impact - whether social, economic or environmental - can be created.”
A key part of the assessment is the clustering exercise, which categorises all countries based on their open data maturity score - from low to high performance - as beginners, followers, fast-trackers, and trend-setters. This year for the first time, France received the highest score of the assessment, retaining their position as trend-setter. Ireland, Spain, Poland, Estonia, and Ukraine are also in that group. Interestingly, also participating countries outside the EU27 show peak performance this year by jumping from beginner to fast-tracker (Norway) and becoming a trend-setter in 2021 (Ukraine).
Have a look at the report to discover how your country performed in this year’s assessment.
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Footnotes
1: The countries covered by the 2021 assessment include the EU27 Member States, the EFTA countries: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries: Georgia and Ukraine, and Montenegro and the United Kingdom (UK).