Governments are still failing to provide "enough information in an accessible form to their citizens and businesses" according to the 2013 open data index published today by the Open Knowledge Foundation.

The 2013 index, released ahead of the annual summit for the Open Government Partnership, gives the UK the best score for open data and is followed closely behind by the US. Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands follow the UK and US, while of the 70 countries assessed, Cyprus, St Kitts & Nevis, the British Virgin Islands, Kenya and Burkina Faso record the lowest scores.

The Open Knowledge Foundation note that the index - a result of community-based surveys in 70 countries - does not paint a full global picture. They explain that although there are "many countries where governments are less open" they were not assessed due to a "lack of openness or a sufficiently engaged civil society." The not-for-profit organisation also points out that this includes 30 countries who are members of the Open Government Partnership.

Countries are ranked on the availability and accessibility of information in ten key areas; government spending, election results, transport timetables, pollution levels, government budget, company register, national statistics, legislation, postcodes and availability of a high level copy of a national map.

Rufus Pollock, Founder and CEO of the Open Knowledge Foundation said:

Opening up government data drives democracy, accountability and innovation. It enables citizens to know and exercise their rights, and it brings benefits across society: from transport, to education and health. There has been a welcome increase in support for open data from governments in the last few years, but this Index reveals that too much valuable information is still unavailable.

Although the UK and US lead on open government data according to the index, there are still key areas for improvement. The UK Electoral Commission doesn't allow open reuse of election data for example, whilst in the US there is no federal dataset that contains all corporate registrations.

The analysis also finds a 'very disappointing' degree of openness when it comes to company registers with only 5 out of the top 20 registering even basic information via a truly open licence. Only 10 of these allow bulk download.

Another issue the research highlighted is a lack of re-usability; less than half of the ten key datasets in the top 20 countries are available to re-use as open data. Pollock explains that even leading countries don't realise the importance of re-usability to open data:

For the true benefits of open data to be realised, governments must do more than simply put a few spreadsheets online. The information should be easily found and understood, and should be able to be freely used, reused and shared by anyone, anywhere, for any purpose.

The table below shows the scores given to each of the 70 countries analysed in the open data index 2013. To see the scores given to each country by each of the 10 key areas, visit the open data index website where additional information is also recorded on the individual areas that have been analysed.

Open data index 2013 Click heading to sort Country Score UK 940 US 870 Denmark 835 Norway 755 Netherlands 740 Australia 705 Finland 700 Sweden 670 New Zealand 660 Canada 590 Iceland 560 Moldova 530 Bulgaria 520 Malta 515 Italy 515 France 510 Austria 505 Portugal 495 Slovenia 485 Switzerland 480 Israel 475 Czech Republic 465 Spain 460 Ireland 460 Greece 455 Croatia 445 Isle Of Man 445 Japan 440 Serbia 440 Russian Federation 425 Ecuador 425 South Korea 425 Poland 420 Taiwan R.O.C. 420 China 415 Indonesia 415 Hungary 415 Brazil 410 Germany 410 Mexico 405 Jersey 400 Guernsey 390 Slovak Republic 375 Bermuda 360 Romania 355 Costa Rica 345 Bangladesh 335 Tunisia 335 Singapore 335 Lithuania 320 South Africa 315 Cayman Islands 310 Egypt 310 Nepal 300 Senegal 290 Saudi Arabia 280 Nigeria 275 Gibraltar 265 Belgium 265 Hong Kong 265 Barbados 240 Bahamas 235 India 215 Bahrain 160 Yemen 140 Burkina Faso 140 Kenya 130 Virgin Is., British 125 Saint Kitts & Nevis 85 Cyprus 30

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