Digital Government Outlook 2026: New Zealand
Table of contents
This country note presents an overview of the digital government landscape in New Zealand drawing on the results of the 2025 OECD Digital Government Index (DGI) and the 2025 OECD OURdata Index. The note outlines key policy developments in the country observed during the assessment period. It aims to inform policy dialogue and support New Zealand in advancing a whole-of-government approach to digital transformation in the public sector.
In the 2025 edition of the OECD Digital Government Index, New Zealand attained a score of 0.48, below the OECD average of 0.70. This represents a 0.02 decrease since 2023 (Figure 1).
New Zealand scored below the OECD average across all six dimensions. The strongest performance was recorded in Proactiveness (0.59) and Digital by Design (0.58), though both remain below OECD averages of 0.67 and 0.75, respectively. These results suggest that New Zealand faces challenges in advancing its digital government agenda.
Lower scores were recorded in Open by Default (0.31 vs 0.59) and User-Driven (0.34 vs 0.71). This means that New Zealand has significant room for improvement in promoting the openness and transparency of government data and in placing user needs at the centre of service design and delivery.
In the 2025 edition of the OECD OURdata Index, New Zealand attained a score of 0.29, below the OECD average of 0.53 (Figure 2). This represents a 0.04 decrease since 2023.
New Zealand scored below the OECD average across all three pillars: 0.28 in Data availability, 0.47 in Data accessibility and 0.11 in Government support for data re-use, compared with OECD averages of 0.53, 0.67 and 0.40, respectively. Data accessibility (0.47) remains the relatively strongest pillar, though challenges persist across all dimensions of open government data provision.
The lowest score was recorded in Government support for data re-use (0.11). This means that New Zealand could further strengthen mechanisms for monitoring the impact of open data and promoting its re-use within and beyond government.
During the assessment period, New Zealand ‘s digital government governance structure was led by the Government Chief Digital Officer within the Department of Internal Affairs under the Strategy for a Digital Public Service. Co-ordination across government was undertaken through a cross-agency Digital Executive Board and the Digitising Government Ministerial Oversight Group. More recently, the Government Digital Delivery Agency was established in 2026 to centralise leadership for digital investment, procurement, and delivery across the public sector.
Artificial intelligence has been applied across multiple areas of government in New Zealand. A 2024 cross-agency survey covering 37 agencies identified 108 use cases, primarily focused on internal productivity: chatbots for guidance and resource discovery, automated sentiment analysis and fraud detection, image analysis for large datasets, and automated transcription of meetings and hearings. A smaller set of use cases target improved customer experience, including assisted web search on government websites and contact-centre tools supporting staff in helping customers.
A comprehensive public sector data strategy is in place in New Zealand. The New Zealand Data Strategy and Roadmap, released by the Government Chief Data Steward in 2021, provides the shared direction and plan for New Zealand's government data system.
While New Zealand performs well in value proposition methodology and project monitoring, broader components of its digital investment framework could be strengthened. In particular, ex-post cost-benefit analysis, a dedicated fund, a GovTech strategy, impact evaluation methodology, and a standardised project management model are not yet in place. Developing these capabilities could enhance oversight across the investment lifecycle.
New Zealand's human-centred services framework also presents significant opportunities for development. A service catalogue, omni-channel delivery, performance metrics, the Once-Only Principle, and standardised transaction cost measurement are not yet in place. Establishing these capabilities could support more coherent and user-centred public services. The recently launched Govt.nz app, providing a single digital gateway for government services, signals progress in this direction.
The OECD Digital Government Outlook (DGO) provides a comprehensive assessment of digital government policies across OECD Members and accession candidate countries. It draws on the results of the 2025 OECD Digital Government Index (DGI) and the 2025 OECD Open, Useful and Re-usable Data (OURdata) Index to evaluate progress and identify persistent gaps in digital transformation across the public sector.
The DGI assesses the enabling foundations for digital transformation across six dimensions: Digital by Design, Data-driven Public Sector, Government as a Platform, Open by Default, User-Driven and Proactiveness. Rather than measuring the digitalisation of specific services, the DGI focuses on the strategies, policy levers, implementation practices and monitoring mechanisms that enable coherent, whole-of-government digital transformation.
The OURdata Index benchmarks the robustness of open government data policies across three pillars: data availability, data accessibility and government support for data re-use. It supports policymakers in monitoring the design and implementation of national open government data policies.
Both indices were developed with OECD Member countries through the OECD Working Party of Senior Digital Government Officials (E-Leaders) and approved by the OECD Public Governance Committee.
Figure 1: The 2025 DGI OECD average does not include Germany and the United States. 2025 data cover the period from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2024. The 2023 OECD average does not include Germany, Greece, Slovakia, Switzerland and the United States. 2023 data cover the period from 1 January 2021 to 31 October 2022. The composite score is the unweighted average of the six-dimension scores.
Figure 2: The 2025 and 2023 OURdata Index OECD average does not include Denmark, Hungary and the United States. 2025 data cover the period from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2024. 2023 data cover the period from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021. The composite score is the unweighted average of the three-pillar scores.
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The full book is available in English: OECD (2026), Digital Government Outlook 2026: From Foundations to Transformational Impact, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/0496b2bc-en.
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