Australia ranks equal 1st for open gov data

Australia has placed equal first on a list of 94 countries ranked by the availability of open government data.

Australia shares first place with Taiwan in the latest Global Open Data Index (GODI) from Open Knowledge International, with a score of 79%.

This score was accumulated due to top marks in terms of availability of data in categories including government budgets, national statistics, procurement details, national maps, company registers and election results.

Each category was measured based on six criteria, with top marks awarded to datasets that are openly licensed, in an open and machine-readable format, downloadable at once, up to date, publicly available and free of charge.

But other categories of data did not measure up as well, with data on government spending and land ownership meeting none of these criteria.

“I am delighted, but not surprised, to see Australia being ranked as the best in the world when it comes to open government data. Data was one of the earliest success stories of this government as we increased the 500 datasets available in 2013 to more than 20,000 datasets currently — and this has delivered real benefits in innovation,” Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation Angus Taylor said.

“We must now ensure that we keep this momentum going in order to fill the gaps highlighted by the global index and build on our initial successes.”

Image courtesy Eduardo M.C. under CC

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