In parallel to national portals, the European portal data.europa.eu provides the central, official point of access to datasets of national, regional and local public administrations, as well as datasets of the EU institutions. Today, data.europa.eu holds over 1.5 million datasets, and this number keeps growing every day.
Open data maturity (ODM) and the 2022 report
The number of open datasets that are publicly available is a good quantitative indicator of progress towards achieving the goals of the European Data Strategy. There are, however, several qualitative aspects that are more difficult to capture, yet important if we want to have a complete picture of a given country's open data maturity. These aspects range from the quality of published datasets to the existence of an underlying data culture in administrations and societies, allowing these datasets to have a greater impact.
To reflect this complexity, the concept of 'open data maturity' was put in place, and ever since 2015, an annual benchmarking exercise has taken place, resulting in the annual Open Data Maturity report (link below). This benchmarking exercise is based on surveys among representatives of national open data teams, and their answers to an extensive questionnaire.
The report is published by the Publications Office, responsible for the management of data.europa.eu, and DG CONNECT, responsible for developing the EU's overall open data policy and legislation.
The latest edition of the Open Data Maturity (ODM) Report 2022 assesses the open data maturity level of 35 European countries, including the 27 EU Member States. Building on previous reports, it documents countries' year-on-year progress.
The questions that countries are required to answer relate to four main dimensions in their open data development:
- Policy – sheds light on the open data policies and strategies in place in the European countries;
- Impact – this dimension analyses the willingness, preparedness, and ability of European countries to measure both the reuse of and impact created by open data;
- Portal – this aspect focuses on the features, use and sustainability of countries´ national open data portals;
- Quality – this dimension examines the measures adopted by portal managers to ensure the systematic harvesting of metadata from sources across the country.
Highlights of the report
- To help make comparisons and learn from each other, the report clusters countries based on their open data maturity score – from beginners to followers, fast-trackers and trend-setters. The diagram above shows the open data maturity scores for 2022.
- The majority of countries surveyed find themselves on the higher end of the spectrum (above 65%), with eight countries even scoring 91% or higher.
- The 2022 report identifies a good level of preparedness in Member States with respect to the upcoming implementing Regulation on so-called high-value datasets. These are datasets that have a high potential for economic and societal impact, such as data on energy consumption, satellite images, or demographic and economic indicators.
Curious to learn more about how specific countries performed, which challenges they faced, and which trends can be found across Europe? Check out the ODM dedicated page and find here the report, as well as the dashboard visualising the results and the countries´ questionnaires.
Data stories
Sharing experiences on open data quality across countries
This data story is the second of a series of data stories focused on the ODM report.
While the goal of the first data story was to announce the publication of the report and present its general results, this second data story and those to follow will deep dive into the dimensions of the methodology with real, inspirational examples from specific countries.
Relevant information
2022 Open Data Maturity report
Previous Open Data Maturity reports
European legislation on open data
The official portal for European data