Data inventories

Data inventories

During a data inventory, all available data in an organisation is mapped. Subsequently, it is investigated which data are suitable for publishing as open data and creating a collection.

In 2015, all ministries started an annual government-wide data inventory. It is indicated per department which datasets are available for publication and reuse, which datasets will be published in the long term and which datasets will remain closed due to personal data, for example. The data inventory is fully public and produces many new available datasets every year.

Since 2017, the data inventory has also been carried out among all data owners who already publish data on data.overheid.nl.

If you would like to know more about data inventories, please contact the data.overheid.nl team via data@koop.overheid.nl.

Results of data inventories

The results from the data inventory are subsequently published as a data set (in Dutch) on data.overheid.nl. Enclosed you will find briefly the results of past years.

Inventory 2018

At the beginning of 2018, the data.overheid.nl team carried out a data inventory, as in 2017, among all data owners of the National data portal, including: municipalities, provinces and water boards. The results have already been published on data.overheid.nl.

The general results of the inventory are as follows:

• In the period from 1 March 2017 to 1 April 2018, the number of directly available datasets at data.overheid.nl increased from 2,251 to 2,581 datasets at the national government;
• In the period from 1 March 2017 to 1 April 2018, the number of directly available datasets on data.overheid.nl increased from 1,852 to 3,034 datasets in the provinces;
• In the period from 1 March 2017 to 1 April 2018, the number of directly available datasets on data.overheid.nl increased from 749 to 1,547 datasets in the municipalities;
• About 60% of all data owners on data.overheid.nl actively participated in the data inventory (participation in the inventory was voluntary).

Inventory 2017

At the beginning of 2017, the data.overheid.nl team carried out a data inventory among all data owners of the data portal. In contrast to the data inventories of 2015 and 2016, this year the inventory was not only carried out among data owners within central government. This year, all data owners took part in the inventory, including municipalities and provinces.

The results of the inventory were discussed in the Kamerbrief Uitvoering Open Data Beleid (in Dutch) of 7 June 2017. As stated in the letter:

• In the period from 1 June 2016 to 1 March 2017, the number of directly available datasets at data.overheid.nl increased from 2,072 to 2,251 datasets at the national government;
• In the period from 1 March 2016 to 1 March 2017, the number of directly available datasets on data.overheid.nl increased from 1,205 to 1,852 datasets in the provinces;
• In the period from 1 March 2016 to 1 March 2017, the number of directly available datasets on data.overheid.nl increased from 227 to 749 datasets in the municipalities;
• The inventory shows that provinces and municipalities have 71 open datasets that have not yet been registered on data.overheid.nl;
• More than 60% of all data owners actively participated in the data inventory (participation in the inventory was voluntary).

Inventory 2016

A government-wide data inventory was again carried out from February to May 2016. The departments investigate which data sets are available within the department and whether these can be made available as open data.

The results of the government-wide data inventory were discussed in the Kamerbrief van 22 juni 2016 (in Dutch). As Minister Plasterk indicated in this letter, the number of available data sets from departments on data.overheid.nl increased steadily: in the period from 1 May 2015 to June 1, 2016, the number of departmental data sets increased by 36% (from 1523 to 2072 datasets).

In addition to the general results, attention is also paid to high value data sets when making an inventory of data. High value data sets are data sets that make a major contribution to transparent government. The inventory shows that ministries consider at least 27 data sets to be high value data sets. 17 of these are already available on data.overheid.nl.

Inventory 2015

The data inventory of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations has yielded 550 datasets that have been made immediately available for reuse. In addition, nearly 300 datasets are planned or under investigation to be published. It is also indicated which datasets will not be available, for example because they contain personal data.

In order to be able to provide certainty about the opening or remaining closed of datasets, a number of departments have indicated that they need more time for decision-making in order to arrive at good inventory overviews. An update on this will be provided in the autumn of 2015.

This also implemented the request for government-wide data inventory by MP Ms Voortman of GroenLinks.