Open data maturity report 2022

The push towards open data reuse across Europe has been especially pertinent in 2022. For example, data.europa.eu’s annual research into the level of open data maturity reveals that some countries have leveraged open data to monitor energy use and facilitate the integration of Ukrainian refugees.

More data, more investment, more reuse

European countries are investing resources to increase their open data maturity across the board, according to the European Commission’s 2022 Open Data Maturity Report, produced for data.europa.eu and coordinated by Capgemini Invent. With open data reuse an important pillar of Europe’s digital decade, the report reveals that 100% of EU Member States aim to promote (or are already promoting) high-value datasets, those datasets that have the biggest potential for society and the economy.

The Open Data Maturity report identifies best practices that can be transferred to other national and local contexts. This year, the EC’s landscaping exercise included all EU27 Member States as well as eight other countries from the wider European region.

France (97.5%) and EU candidate country Ukraine (97%) achieved the highest open data maturity ratings across the assessment dimensions of policy, impact, portal, and quality. The average maturity rating stood at 79% for the EU27 Member States.

Trends in accelerating open data maturity

The 2022 report identifies three trends in the current context of a European region in which the conflict in Ukraine has had a social, economic and energy supply impact, while also creating opportunities to accelerate open data use for the common good.

• There is a good level of preparedness for the upcoming EC implementing regulation on high-value datasets (to be adopted in late 2022 or early 2023), with 96% of EU Member States working on identifying high-value data domains to be prioritised for publication
• Measuring open data impact is both a priority and a challenge – for example, only 26% of EU Member States report on the impact created by open data on society, and just 8 of the EU27 hold data on the impact of open data on the environment
• Some common challenges are emerging post-pandemic, including a lack of human resources allocated to open data, difficulties in finding a recurring budget for specific datasets, and a struggle incentivising different players to provide and use open data.

As with previous years’ Open Data Maturity reports, the 2022 edition aims to help participating countries better understand their level of open data maturity, to capture their progress over time, to find areas for improvement, and to benchmark their maturity against other countries.

The report’s preparation has been coordinated by Capgemini on behalf of the Publications Office of the European Union, and as part of the European Commission’s data.europa.eu initiative providing the official portal for Europe’s open data.