Mongolia: 2nd leading Asian country for openness
Mongolia received an overall score of 62 in the latest Open Data Inventory (ODIN), ranking 24th among 180 countries and second in the region.
Mongolia’s ranking for data availability and openness has been steadily rising over the years. It placed 65th out of 125 countries in 2015, 62nd out of 180 countries in 2016, and in this year’s report, it jumped one place to 61st out of 180 countries. Mongolia’s scores went up in all elements except from the coverage of social statistics.
In 2017, Mongolia scored 100 points for publishing representative indicators in nonproprietary formats along with Canada, Estonia, Netherlands, Norway, and Slovenia. Publication in non-proprietary formats was the element with the highest average score this year and has been on the rise since 2015. Non-proprietary formats are important because they allow users to access data without requiring the use of a costly, proprietary software that may prevent some users from accessing the data.
ODIN provides an objective and reproducible measure of the availability of official statistics that meet the definition of open data. Results from 2017 indicate that progress to date has been slow in regards to the availability and openness of data. The importance of increasing the availability and openness of data can be seen in the large number of indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that remain unavailable almost three years after the adoption of the 2030 Development Agenda.
The report analyzed data sets in 21 categories that are the most pertinent to managing and monitoring progress on Sustainable Development Goals and the social, economic, and environmental development of a country. The median ODIN country score for 2017 is 37.4, meaning that fewer than half the countries satisfy more than 38 percent of the ODIN criteria for data coverage and openness across all data categories.
National scores range from 80 for Denmark to three for Chad.
North America and Europe have the highest average scores, while Africa has the lowest. But there is considerable variation between regions. In Oceania, the high scores of Australia and New Zealand are in marked contrast to the low-scoring Pacific Islands. In Europe, the differences are less pronounced, but Northern Europe, which includes three of the highest scoring countries – Denmark, Norway, and Sweden – has a 10 point lead over Eastern Europe. In Asia, the average score of Eastern Asia is eight points ahead of Western Asia.