Frequently Asked Questions

What UN E-Government Survey data is available to the public?

All publicly available data can be accessed on our web-portal UN E-Government Knowledgebase. Under the "DATA" tab, you can find an interactive tool to view, sort and download information and datasets in open data formats from the 2022 Survey and previous editions (2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020). It also includes a machine-readable file of the Annex tables, advanced research features such as customizable regional and country comparisons, ranking and country profiles.

Are the Online Service Index assessment questions available to the public?

While we do not share the questions used in our assessment of the national portals, a list of the features assessed are included in the UN E-Government Survey. They can be found listed in the Annex. It is also important to note that this list is dynamic and is updated for each edition of the Survey. The latest publication can be found at https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us.

Is the Member State Questionnaire (MSQ) available to the public?

As done for each edition of the Survey, the United Nations Member States were requested, through the Member State Questionnaire (MSQ), to provide information on the website addresses (URL) of their national portal(s) and the different government ministries. Information on efforts in support of e-government development, open government data, e-participation and the designated authority in charge of e-government policies was also requested. The MSQ is available to the public and can be found in the Survey Annexes

What is the reason for a country’s low ranking, or a drop in ranking compared to previous years?

The Survey rates the e-government performance of countries relative to one another, as opposed to being an absolute measurement. This means that a drop in the ranking does not actually mean that e-government development in that country is going backwards. It only implies that there were more countries which scored higher in that edition of the Survey. The Survey tracks progress of e-government development via the E-Government Development Index (EGDI). The EGDI, which assesses e-government development at the national level, is a composite index based on the weighted average of three normalized indices. One-third is derived from a Telecommunications Infrastructure Index (TII) based on data provided by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), one-third from a Human Capital Index (HCI) based on data provided by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and one-third from the Online Service Index (OSI). The scores of the country in TII and HCI will equally affect the EGDI. While a country may have scored very high in OSI, it may not score high in EGDI due to lower scores in the other two components, for example.

Why is there a difference between the data currently available for the Telecommunications Infrastructure Index (TII) and/or Human Capital Index (HCI) and that used in the last edition of the Survey?

TII is based on data provided by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the HCI data used in the Survey is sourced through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Institute of Statistics (UNESCO-UIS) or UNDP. For the 2022 Survey, as highlighted in the publication, all Member States’ TII data was last checked against the ITU online database in February 2022 and HCI data was last checked against the UNESCO-UIS online database in October 2021. The Survey has been finalized using the data available at that point in time. It is quite likely that the data available now has since been updated.

Can the data and the rankings be updated to include the most recent TII or HCI data?

The Survey rates the Member States’ e-government performance relative to one another, as opposed to offering an absolute measurement. Therefore, given the established methodology of the Survey and its already-published status, updating or revising data could affect not only a country’s score, but also unfairly change the final rankings of other Member States.

Is there a release date for the next edition of the Survey?

The UN E-Government Survey is conducted on a biennial basis, with publication in even years (2020, 2022, etc.) While no exact date has been set for the next edition, we anticipate that it will be released in mid-2024.

Can the data and other findings generated by the Survey be used for research and publication?

All the Survey data found in the UN E-Government Knowledge DataBase page (https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us) may be used if properly referenced to the official source (example, UN E-Government Survey © 2022 by United Nations) and the United Nations Terms of Use and Copyright are followed. Please consult these sources for more details: http://www.un.org/en/sections/about-website/terms-use/ http://www.un.org/en/sections/about-website/copyright/

Which country-level portals were used to collect the Online Service Index (OSI) data?

The links to the country-level portals used in our research can be found here: https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us/Resources/Country-URLs

Why is the UN E-Government Survey not available in all UN official languages?

The E-Government Survey is a DESA mandated publication, but only for the English version. We work with Member State institutions to provide as many translations in various languages as possible. The 2022 edition of the Survey will, for the first time, have versions produced in all UN languages, thanks to the support of translation partners. Once available, and after we have made sure the layout, format and content are identical to the published English version, the translations are available in UN E-Government Survey page: https://publicadministration.un.org/en/Research/UN-e-Government-Surveys