Lithuania Has Risen to a Record High 7th Place in the European Open Data Survey
This year, Lithuania has risen six places in the annual European Open Data Portal Survey to a record high 7th place among 35 countries. In the survey which assesses open data policies and their practical implementation, Lithuania outperformed such countries as Ireland, Italy, Slovenia, Denmark, Norway and the Czech Republic.
‘The 7th place reached by Lithuania exceeded even the expectations set out in the Government’s plan. This is our country’s highest achievement in this area. It shows that we are on the right track in strengthening the digital state, as open data is a crucial foundation for the economy. It is estimated that the practical use of data could reach 1.71% of national GDP in 2026,’ said Aušrinė Armonaitė, the 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 areas assessed. The most significant progress has been made in the area of open data impact, i.e. up from the 12th place to the 8th place, and in the area of data quality, i.e. up from the 13th place to the 9th place.
No less progress has been made in the area of the national open data portal, moving from the 10th to the 7th place. In addition, Lithuania is above the EU average in all areas. The highest score (21%) is in the area of the impact of open data.
‘Both public sector institutions and business have contributed to this record-breaking achievement for Lithuania. We have set the stage for greater data openness through legislation, focused on educating the open data community and launched high-value open data initiatives. This is already paying off and will have a significant impact in the future, as the open data market in Lithuania could reach EUR 125 million in 2025 and EUR 285 million in 2026,’ said Erika Kuročkina, the Deputy Minister of the Economy and Innovation.
EIMIN, in cooperation with the national institutions, seeks to open up as much anonymised data as possible to the public and business and publish it on the Lithuanian Open Data Portal, which is the main platform for open data and business demand for open data in Lithuania.
In 2022, the number of open datasets in Lithuania increased by 13% and the number of people interested in open data more than doubled to 1,135 registered portal users.
Countries are classified into four groups according to their progress in opening up data: trendsetters, fast followers, followers and starters. This year, starting from 2020, Lithuania is classified as a Fast Follower.
This year, 35 countries took part in the European Open Data Survey: the European Union Member States, the countries of European Free Trade Association, i.e. Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, the EU candidate countries Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Ukraine, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina.
France, Poland, Estonia, Poland, Ukraine, Spain, Cyprus and Estonia remain the leaders in this ranking and are among the trendsetters. For more information on the European Open Data Survey, visit the European Data Portal.