Digital government is no longer a policy ambition filed under innovation. It has become a daily test of whether public administrations can keep pace with the demands of citizens, businesses, and a world that no longer waits for paperwork to clear. The 2025 results of the OECD Digital Government Index, based on policies and initiatives from 2023 to 2024, is read more like a progress report from a system under pressure. Governments know they must act. Still, many remain weighed down by layered procedures and rulebooks that grew thick in the name of fairness yet now slow decisions to a crawl.
That tension sits at the heart of the Digital Government Index. The benchmark, produced by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, tracks whether public sectors are building the foundations for a coherent, human-centred shift to digital ways of working. The numbers suggest motion rather than momentum. Across member states, the average score rose from 0.61 in 2023 to 0.70 in 2025, a 14 per cent rise. It is a solid gain, yet it also hints at how far governments still stand from the finish line they have drawn for themselves.
The Digital Government Index sits alongside the Open, Useful and Re-usable Data Index, a companion measure of how well states design and apply national open data policies. Together, they offer a view into the plumbing of government: how data move, how systems talk to one another, and how policy intent turns into daily practice. Both indices now feed into broader OECD work, including the OECD.AI Index, because digital tools have become strategic assets. Choices about infrastructure, data architecture, and the use of AI shape a state’s room to act, its autonomy, and its long-term capacity to govern.
DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT HERE!
5 Key Takeaways
1. Digital government is now a test of state capacity, not an innovation project: The 2025 Digital Government Index shows that digital government now measures whether administrations can act at the pace citizens and businesses expect. The rise from 0.61 to 0.70 since 2023 signals progress under pressure, not comfort. Many governments still struggle with internal rules that slow decisions and dilute impact.
2. Consistent performers lead because they built the basics first: Countries at the top of the index succeed through steady investment in data governance, digital identity, shared systems and service standards. Their progress reflects long-term discipline rather than short-term pilots. Late movers that gained ground did so when political backing matched delivery capacity.
3. Governance lags behind service design and AI uptake: The strongest gains appear in data-driven services, user-centred design and the spread of AI across policy fields. Foundational areas such as digital-by-design and government as a platform advance more slowly, which weakens long-term delivery. Oversight of digital strategies and spending remains uneven, leaving room for drift.
4. Data sharing has improved; data use has not kept pace: More senior data leadership and wider interoperability help information move across agencies. Still, daily use of shared systems trails their technical reach. Fragmented ownership and access rules continue to slow joined-up services.
5. Open data grows faster than public value from data: Data availability and access now outpace support for re-use. Publishing datasets has become routine, while skills, incentives and impact measurement lag. Without stronger rules and auditability, open data risks producing visibility without lasting public value.
OECD Digital Government Index: Who Leads the Pack?
The leaders of the 2025 Digital Government Index are a familiar club of steady performers. South Korea, Australia, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Norway, Estonia, Ireland and Denmark top the table, with balanced scores across six dimensions of digital government policy. Their standing reflects years of patient work on data governance, digital identity, service standards, and the steady spread of shared systems across ministries. Chile, Costa Rica, Portugal and Japan post the sharpest gains since 2023, which signals that late movers can still close the gap when political backing aligns with delivery.
Yet the index also exposes the friction that slows many reforms. Governments have invested heavily in data-driven public services, user-centred design, and more proactive use of AI. These areas show the largest gains since the last edition. At the same time, progress lags in areas that sound dull but decide whether digital change sticks. Digital by design and government as a platform show only modest advances, partly because many countries had already built basic governance and cybersecurity rules. Open by default remains stubbornly uneven, with open data policies and digital investment rules trailing the pace set by service design and data use.
Uneven Progress Carries a Warning
We find that this uneven progress carries a warning. Compliance rules and accountability duties do not fade when governments digitize. They grow more complex. Data sharing across agencies raises questions of consent and lawful use. AI in public decision-making demands oversight that keeps pace with code that updates far faster than statutes. Strong governance structures and monitoring of digital investment matter because they anchor trust. The Digital Government Index shows that many countries have widened digital skills programmes and strengthened legal bases for digital work since 2023. Still, oversight of strategy delivery and spending remains thin in too many capitals, which leaves room for drift and duplication.
Data governance stands out as both a bright spot and a bottleneck. More governments now appoint senior leaders to steer how data are managed and used. Interoperability systems spread across agencies, which allows records to travel rather than forcing citizens to act as couriers. Even so, the daily use of these systems lags behind their technical reach. Agencies still cling to local databases and bespoke tools. As a result, integration across the public sector advances in fits and starts. The promise of joined-up services depends less on software purchases and more on hard choices about data ownership, access rights, and shared standards.
Additional Mixed Results
Cloud policies and digital public infrastructure also show mixed results. Many governments have tightened rules for cloud use and widened digital identity coverage. Cross-border use of digital identity, however, remains limited, which narrows the gains for citizens who live, work, or trade across borders. In user-driven design, the news is better.
More administrations test services with real users before rollout, which curbs the old habit of launching tools that look tidy on paper yet frustrate people in practice. Proactive services, often supported by AI, have spread across policy fields, though governance of AI still trails its uptake.
Open, Useful and Re-usable Data Index Score
The Open, Useful and Re-usable Data Index paints a similar picture of progress with caveats. The average score rose from 0.48 in 2023 to 0.53 in 2025. France, South Korea, Poland, Estonia and Spain lead the ranking. Chile, Japan, Czechia, Portugal and Latvia record the largest jumps. Data availability and accessibility outpace government support for re-use, which reveals a familiar gap. Publishing datasets is easier than building the skills, tools and incentives that allow public servants, firms and researchers to draw public value from them. High-value datasets now appear more often in education, public finance, accountability, crime and justice. Access rules, pushed in part by the EU Open Data directive, have spread. Yet support for re-use and serious impact research remains thin.
Here again, the RegTech angle cuts through the optimism. Open data without clear rules for use can blur accountability. Public value does not appear by default when datasets go online. It grows when legal clarity, audit trails and feedback loops guide how data feed into policy and services. The Digital Government Index shows that governance has improved since 2023, but bolder steps are still rare. Monitoring of digital strategies, scrutiny of investment returns, and public reporting on outcomes remain patchy. Without that discipline, digital projects drift from public purpose to vendor showcase.
OECD Digital Government Index: Full Reconning Due This Year
The next full reckoning arrives with the OECD Digital Government Outlook due in 2026, which will probe the drivers of change, country practice and the politics of reform. Until then, the 2025 Digital Government Index should not sit on a shelf. It should shape cabinet debates, budget hearings and procurement choices now, because delay carries a cost that compounds with every budget cycle. Governments are moving. They act faster than they did two years ago. Furthermore, they design more with users in mind and share more data. They apply AI with growing confidence. On the other side, the progress remains uneven, and comfort with pilot projects often replaces the harder work of system-wide change.
That harder work now separates credible reformers from careful observers. The quieter work of governance still lags, and that gap decides whether digital tools earn public trust or drain it. Finally, digital government defines how states govern themselves in practice, not in theory, and the OECD Digital Government Index records who treats that shift as policy theatre and who treats it as statecraft. The race is live, the clock is running, and those who hesitate will soon find that others have already set the terms.
We are here to help governments, financial institutions, and businesses to effectively comply with growing regulatory requirements through technology.
