In order to accurately interpret the data included in Government at a Glance 2025, readers need to be familiar with the following methodological considerations that cut across a number of indicators. Starting with Chapter 2, individual indicators are presented in a standard format on two pages. The first page contains text that explains the relevance of the topic and highlights some of the major differences observed across OECD countries. This is followed by a “Methodology and definitions” section, which describes the data sources and provides important information necessary to interpret the data. Closing the first page is a “Further reading” section, which lists useful background literature providing context to the data displayed. The second page showcases the data. Figures show current levels and, where possible, trends over time.
Government at a Glance 2025
Data on public finances are based on the definition of the sector “general government” found in the System of National Accounts (SNA). Accordingly, general government comprises ministries/departments, agencies, offices and some non-profit institutions at the central, state and local level, as well as social security funds. Data on revenues and expenditures are presented both for central and sub-central (state and local) levels of government and (where applicable) for social security funds. Data on employment also refer to general government, although data on employment by gender refer to the public sector, which covers both general government as well as publicly owned resident enterprises and companies. Finally, data on public management practices and processes refer to those practices and processes in the central level of government only unless specified differently.
Unless specified, data from the OECD National Accounts are based on calendar years.
Data for Australia and New Zealand refer to fiscal years: 1 July of the year indicated to 30 June for Australia and 1 April of the year indicated to 31 March for New Zealand. For Japan, data regarding sub-sectors of general government and expenditures by classification of the functions of government (COFOG) refer to fiscal year.
The data on public finances and economics, based on the System of National Accounts (SNA), were extracted from the OECD National Accounts Statistics (database) and the Eurostat Government Finance Statistics (database) on 8 May 2025. The data on public employment were extracted from the OECD National Accounts Statistics (database) and the ILOSTAT (database) on 18 April 2025.
Government at a Glance 2025 includes data for all 38 OECD countries based on available information. The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law.
Some additional OECD accession countries, such as Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Indonesia, Romania and Peru also supplied data for some indicators. Data for these non-member countries are presented separately at the end of tables and figures. Data for Thailand were not included as accession was formalized in the course of the report preparation.
The majority of the indicators included in Government at a Glance are collected through expert based questionnaires that are sent to, and validated by, OECD working parties and networks. The OECD Survey on the Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions is a population-based survey managed by the OECD but administered through a third-party provider. While the Secretariat invites all member and accession countries to participate in data collection exercises, participation is voluntary and thus coverage may vary by topic. In the Methodology and Definitions section within each two-pager the coverage of the corresponding questionnaires is specified. The table below summarizes the coverage for the different questionnaires and surveys included in the report that provides the total to calculate percentages for each of the topics.
Averages
In figures, the OECD average is presented as unweighted, arithmetic mean or weighted average of the OECD countries for which data are available. It does not include data for non-member countries. In the notes, OECD countries for whom data are not available are listed.
If a figure depicts information for one or more years, the OECD average includes all OECD countries with available data. For instance, an OECD average for 2007 published in this edition includes all current OECD countries with available information for that year, even if at that time they were not members of the OECD. If an OECD country is not included in the OECD average for a particular indicator this is generally due to a lack of backwards series and/or incompleteness and consistency of information in a certain domain.
In the case of National Accounts data, averages refer to the weighted average, unless otherwise indicated. The OECD average is calculated for 2023 as not all OECD countries have data available for 2024. However, together with the OECD average, the OECD-EU average is also included in this framework. The OECD-EU group comprises countries which are both members of the OECD and European Union (namely: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden; the United Kingdom is not part of this composition as is not an EU member country). For these OECD and OECD-EU averages, the method of aggregation for the calculation of the indicators expressed as ratios (e.g. government expenditures in terms of GDP) use the denominator as weight (in this case the GDP, market prices, which is expressed in PPP).
Totals
OECD totals are most commonly found in tables and represent the sum of data in the corresponding column for the OECD countries for which data are available. Totals do not include data for non-member countries. In the notes, OECD countries for whom data are not available are listed.
For several indicators, additional tables and figures presenting country-specific data or annexes with complementary information on the indicator methodology can be found online. When available, these are noted in the “Methodology and definitions” section of the indicator. Government at a Glance 2025 also offers access to StatLinks, a service that allows readers to download the featured data’s corresponding Excel files. StatLinks are found at the bottom right-hand corner of the tables or figures and can be typed into a web browser or, in an electronic version of the publication, clicked on directly.
In addition, the following supplementary materials are available online at: www.oecd.org/gov/govataglance.htm:
The Government at a Glance data portal includes a selection of indicators in interactive format.
Country fact sheets that present key data by country compared with the OECD average.
The Government at a Glance statistical database, which includes regularly updated data for a selection of quantitative indicators and the publication of qualitative data for the surveys collected by the Public Governance Directorate of the OECD; both data are supported by the OECD.Explorer dedicated platform.
Some indicators (e.g. expenditures, revenues and government debt) are shown on a per capita (i.e. per person) basis. The underlying population estimates are based on the System of National Accounts notion of residency. They include persons who are resident in a country for one year or more, regardless of their citizenship, and also include foreign diplomatic personnel and defence personnel together with their families, students studying and patients seeking treatment abroad, even if they stay abroad for more than one year. The one-year rule means that usual residents who live abroad for less than one year are included in the population, while foreign visitors (for example, tourists) who are in the country for less than one year are excluded. An important point to note in this context is that individuals may feature as employees of one country (contributing to the gross domestic product [GDP] of that country via production), but residents of another (with their wages and salaries reflected in the gross national income of their resident country).
Purchasing power parities (PPPs) are the rates of currency conversion that equalise the purchasing power of different countries by eliminating differences in price levels between countries. When converted by means of PPPs, expenditures across countries are in effect expressed at the same set of prices, meaning that an equivalent bundle of goods and services will have the same cost in both countries, enabling comparisons across countries that reflect only the differences in the volume of goods and services purchased.
PPPs for current and historical series are produced and updated by the OECD with a specific procedure. PPPs for a given year T are published into the following steps:
1. At T+3 months (March): first PPP estimates, for GDP only
2. At T+6 months (June): second PPP estimates, based on detailed extrapolations, for GDP, households’ Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) and Household Final Consumption Expenditure (HFCE)
3. At T+12 (December) and T+14 months (February): third PPP estimates, incorporating all price and expenditure data for year T
4. At T+24 (December) and T+26 months (February): fourth PPP estimates, incorporating updated expenditure estimates
5. At T+36 (December) and T+38 months (February): Fifth PPP estimates for year T
Historical PPP data until 2023 might be revised at the end of March of each year in order to incorporate revisions in National Accounts’ deflators. In addition, first estimates for 2024 (GDP only) will be produced in this month. In December 2016, historical PPP data until 2012 were exceptionally revised for all European countries.
Additional information is also available at www.oecd.org/sdd/prices-ppp/.
This publication includes descriptive composite indices in narrowly defined areas related to budgeting practices and infrastructure planning and delivery. These composite indexes are a practical way of summarising discrete, qualitative information. The composites presented in this publication were created in accordance with the steps identified in the Handbook on Constructing Composite Indicators (Nardo et al., 2008[109]).
Details about the methodology used to construct the composite indicators on digital government, open government data, independent fiscal institutions, infrastructure governance and human resource management are available in Annexes A, B, C and E. While the composite indicators were developed in co-operation with OECD countries and are based on theory and/or best practices, the variables included in the indexes and their relative weights are based on expert judgments and, as a result, may change over time. Details about the composites on sectoral regulators is found in (Casullo, Durand and Cavassini, 2019[110]).
The 2025 edition of Government at a Glance presents a structure around three broad categories: 1) Trust, security and dignity; prosperity and satisfaction with public services; 2) Achieving results with good governance practices 3) What resources public institutions use and how are they managed. The next figure presents the conceptual framework for Government at a Glance.
Trust, prosperity and satisfaction with public services
This section includes evidence on public governance outcomes (i.e. trust, security and dignity; prosperity and satisfaction with public services) as perceived by people as well as some of the drivers leading to high or low levels for each of these indicators. The chapter on trust, security and dignity is based on the second round of the OECD survey on the Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions to which 30 OECD countries participated and that was carried out in October and November 2023 (Chapter 2).
The chapter on prosperity is featured for the first time in Government at a Glance as an outcome measure of public administrations’ work. It relies on self-reported data regarding perceptions of economic insecurity, expert-based indicators of governmental measures that can stimulate economic growth, and assessments of the government's role in improving socioeconomic outcomes and reducing poverty and inequality (Chapter 3).
The chapter on satisfaction with public services primarily draws on a new questionnaire that collects information on the administrative processes and standards governments have in place to support the delivery of public administrative services. The implementation of this questionnaire enables the chapter to place a stronger emphasis on public administrative services, while still maintaining key indicators related to health, education, and justice (Chapter 4).
Achieving results with good governance practices
In order to design and implement public policies and deliver public services, public institutions work through public governance processes and practices undertaken by governments to deliver to people. These address the means used by public administrations to fulfil their duties and obtain their goals. In consequence, they are often essential for ensuring the rule of law, accountability, fairness, advance in the green transition and ensure openness of government actions. Public sector reforms often target these processes; as such, they capture the public’s attention. The data included in this section are generated by the different Public Governance communities and are to a large extent the specificity of Government at a Glance. This edition includes chapters on the governance of cross-cutting agendas (Chapter 5), openness, transparency and participation (Chapter 6), digital government and innovation (Chapter 7), regulation (Chapter 8), budgeting practices (Chapter 9), infrastructure planning and delivery (Chapter 10), procurement (Chapter 11) and integrity (Chapter 12).
What resources public institutions use and how are they managed
This section of the publication refers to the resources used by governments to deliver as well as how they are mixed; these resources correspond to labour and capital. The chapters that describe inputs and public management practices include public employment and representation (Chapter 13), managing human resources (Chapter 14), public spending (Chapter 15) as well as public revenues and production costs (Chapter 16).
References
[2] Casullo, L., A. Durand and F. Cavassini (2019), “The 2018 Indicators on the Governance of Sector Regulators - Part of the Product Market Regulation (PMR) Survey”, OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1564, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/a0a28908-en.
[1] Nardo, M. et al. (2008), Handbook on Constructing Composite Indicators: Methodology and User Guide, OECD, Paris, https://www.oecd.org/sdd/42495745.pdf.