Lithuania has moved up one position this year to 13th out of 35 countries in the annual European Data Portal survey, which assesses open data policies and their practical implementation. Lithuania has outperformed such countries as the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Finland, and Sweden.
“Open data is an indicator of a country’s progress and transparency, and the improvement in the country’s position in this ranking shows that we are moving in the right direction. By opening as much data as possible, Lithuania aims to become one of Europe’s leaders in this area. All the legal and technical tools are in place, but we still have room for improvement and growth. It is up to all of us to make further breakthroughs in the use of open data,” said Aušrinė Armonaitė, Minister of the Economy and Innovation.
The European Open Data Survey assesses improvements in 4 key areas: open data policy, the national open data portal, the impact of open data and data quality.
Lithuania has made progress in all the areas assessed. The biggest improvement has been recorded in data quality – Lithuania has risen from the 16th to the 13th place. In addition, Lithuania is above the European Union (EU) average in all areas, most notably in the field of Open Data Portal where it exceeds the average by 10%.
This year, 35 countries have taken part in the survey: the EU member states, the European Free Trade Association countries Iceland, Norway, Switzerland as well as the EU candidate countries Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Ukraine, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
France, Ukraine, Poland, Ireland, Estonia, Spain, Italy and Cyprus, which has joined the group of trendsetters this year, remain the leaders in this ranking.
The Ministry of the Economy and Innovation, in cooperation with all public institutions, aims to open as much personalised data as possible to the public and to business through the Lithuanian Open Data Portal, the main open data platform for business in Lithuania. In 2021, the number of open datasets almost doubled, and the number of people interested in open data increased fivefold. In the first half of this year, the number of open datasets increased by a further 22%.
Open data has a huge commercial potential and is an important source material for digital content products and services, in the development of smart technologies such as artificial intelligence or the Internet of Things. It is estimated that the rational use of data can generate an additional 2% of the national GDP.
