Digital Government Outlook 2026: Sweden
Table of contents
This country note presents an overview of the digital government landscape in Sweden 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 Sweden in advancing a whole-of-government approach to digital transformation in the public sector.
In the 2025 edition of the OECD Digital Government Index, Sweden attained a score of 0.62, below the OECD average of 0.70. This represents a 0.09 increase since 2023 (Figure 1).
Sweden recorded a higher score in Data-driven Public Sector (0.87), well above the OECD average of 0.74. This reflects Sweden's strong performance in leveraging data as a strategic asset for public sector decision-making.
Sweden scored below the OECD average in Proactiveness (0.44 vs 0.67), User-Driven (0.63 vs 0.71), Digital by Design (0.62 vs 0.75), Open by Default (0.53 vs 0.59) and Government as a Platform (0.65 vs 0.71). While Sweden has a mature operational infrastructure in several of these areas, these scores suggest scope to strengthen multiple dimensions. Particularly in anticipating user needs, integrating digital technologies across government, and improving the whole-of-government adoption of shared platforms.
In the 2025 edition of the OECD OURdata Index, Sweden attained a score of 0.61, above the OECD average of 0.53 (Figure 2). This represents a 0.05 decrease since 2023.
Sweden recorded higher scores in Data availability (0.75) and Data accessibility (0.82), compared with OECD averages of 0.53 and 0.67, respectively. These results reflect Sweden's strong performance in ensuring the availability and accessibility of government datasets.
Sweden scored below the OECD average in Government support for data re-use (0.25 vs 0.40). This suggests that Sweden has room for improvement in strengthening mechanisms to actively promote the re-use of government data and measure its public value.
Sweden has developed a centralised methodology for evaluating the impact of digital projects. Digg's guidance on benefit realisation provides a framework and toolbox supporting needs-driven and value-based change management across public organisations. The accompanying Calculation Tools for Benefits and Costs enable structured assessment of the benefits of digital change initiatives and investments.
A comprehensive data quality framework has been established in Sweden. The National Foundational Data Framework and the Swedish Framework for Digital Cooperation set out principles for opening data as a strategic resource, ensuring efficient data transfer and portability, and managing information coherently across the data lifecycle. Statistics Sweden (SCB) has been tasked with developing quality criteria for data.
Ethical AI management in Sweden’s public sector is anchored in Digg's Guidelines for Generative AI in Public Administration which set out key legal, ethical and security considerations for agencies, municipalities, and regions, emphasising human oversight and data protection. The AI Commission, appointed in December 2023, presented its AI Roadmap for Sweden (Färdplan för Sverige) in November 2024, laying the groundwork for a forthcoming national AI strategy The Advanced Digitalisation programme from Vinnova, the national innovation agency, continues to fund AI Sweden, the national research centre.
Sweden’s human-centred service framework presents scope for further development at the policy level. While operational adoption of digital services is strong, key policy elements such as a central service catalogue, structured measurement of user needs, and an omni-channel strategy are not yet formalised. The National Digitalisation Strategy 2025–2030 addresses these gaps, including through a commission to the Swedish Digital Governance Agency to develop a common digital gateway and user-centred design principles for digital services.
Sweden's digital talent framework could also be further developed. Dedicated actions by the lead institution on digital government skills and training programmes covering core digital government skills are not yet fully reported. More recently, the National Digitalisation Strategy 2025–2030 introduced a skills agenda. While not limited to the public service, this approach could help strengthen digital capabilities across public administration.
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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