Short description: In order to improve location-enabled processes and services, Lantmäteriet, in collaboration with relevant actors, has been commissioned by the Government to identify valuable amounts of data and which actors are affected by these in accordance with the revised PSI Directive (Open Data Directive). The assignment included an analysis of societal benefits and budgetary consequences of making these amounts of data available free of charge. Around twenty authorities, county administrative boards and municipal representatives together proposed a number of particularly valuable amounts of data that would generate great societal benefits if they became available free of charge.

The study, performed in 2020, identified 298 particularly valuable open datasets, in six different categories: companies, geospatial data, earth observations and environment, statistics, meteorology and mobility. Among these categories of valuable datasets, geodata has the second highest percentage of datasets available subject to charges (30%) after companies’ datasets.

The study analysed 140 case studies and included a meta-analysis with around 12 impact assessments from neighbouring Nordic countries. The meta-analysis focused on the value of four specific datasets: geospatial data, address data, company data and geological data. These datasets are largely restricted by fees in Sweden and providing them as open data is expected to result in significant socio-economic impact. By calculating the realisable effects from providing open access to these datasets, the estimated value was up to 11.1 billion Swedish krona (SEK).

In contrast to the meta-analysis focusing on the realisable values from neighbouring countries, the case-based impact analysis estimated future values that providing open access to data could potentially help to realise. Opening data could bring added value between 10 and 21 billion SEK in 20 applicable areas within five different sectors (Farming, ICT, Finance & Insurance, Construction and Public sector).

Recommendations: Policy and Strategy Alignment (2); Return on Investment (14)