# Context The Global Open Data Index is an annual effort to measure the state of open government data around the world. The crowdsourced survey is designed to assess the openness of specific government datasets according to the Open Definition. The Global Open Data Index is not an official government representation of the open data offering in each country, but an independent assessment from a citizen’s perspective. It is a civil society audit of open data, and it enables government progress on open data by giving them a measurement tool and a baseline for discussion and analysis of the open data ecosystem in their country and internationally from a key user’s perspective. The Global Open Data Index plays a powerful role in sustaining momentum for open data around the world and in convening civil society networks to use and collaborate around this data. Governments and open data practitioners can review the index results to see how accessible the open data they publish actually appears to their citizens, see where improvements are necessary to make open data truly open and useful, and track their progress year to year. According to the common open data assessment framework there are four different ways to evaluate data openess — context, data, use and impact. The Global Open Data Index is intentionally narrowly focused on the data aspect, hence, limiting its inquiry only to the datasets publication by national governments. It does not look at the broader societal context, seek to assess use or impact in a systematic way, or evaluate the quality of the data. This narrow focus of data publication enables it to provide a standardized, robust, comparable assessment of the state of the publication of key data by governments around the world. # Acknowledgements The Global Open Data Index is compiled by Open Knowledge International with the assistance of volunteers from the Open Knowledge Network around the world. # Inspiration What is the state of open data around the world? Which countries or regions score the highest in all the data categories? Did any countries receive lower open data scores than in previous years?