Government at a Glance 2025

Report

19 June 2025

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Introduction

Governments face a highly complex operating environment marked by major demographic, environmental, and digital shifts, alongside low trust and constrained fiscal space.

Responding effectively means concentrating efforts on three fronts: Enhancing individuals’ sense of dignity in their interactions with government, restoring a sense of security amid rapid societal and economic changes, and improving government efficiency and effectiveness to help boost productivity in the economy, while restoring public finances. These priorities converge in the governance of the green transition.

Government at a Glance 2025 offers evidence-based tools to tackle these long-term challenges.

Key figures

4.6%

OECD average fiscal deficit (2023), up from 2.9% before COVID-19

37%

are confident that their government balances the interests of current and future generations

47%

of governments’ key datasets are openly available

High deficits underscore limited fiscal space post-pandemic

Economic issues are at the forefront of citizens’ minds, yet governments must respond in a challenging fiscal landscape. In 2023, the average fiscal deficit in OECD countries reached 4.6% of GDP, up from 2.9% in the years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic (2015-2019). Addressing complex, long-term challenges will require strategic management of constrained resources within this limited fiscal space.

Governments are intensifying efforts to prioritise the needs of the people in public services

OECD countries are increasingly redesigning how they deliver public services to place users at the centre. Of the 28 countries surveyed, 20 are adopting service design approaches based on the life-events experienced by citizens. This means that the administrative services are organised around key life events, such as having a baby, losing a loved one, retiring or starting a business. However, only 13 countries have fully integrated services for at least one life event, enabling users to interact through a single entry point for the entire life event.

Stakeholder engagement is stalling but broader deliberative democratic initiatives are growing

Among OECD countries, the average quality of stakeholder engagement in primary lawmaking improved slightly, rising from 2.0 in 2014 to 2.3 in 2024 on a scale of 0 to 4. In addition to traditional mechanisms, governments can also employ deliberative democratic practices—such as citizens' assemblies, juries, and public dialogues—to address complex or long-term policy challenges. Between 1979 and 2023, the OECD recorded 716 such processes, with 20% (148) occurring between 2021 and 2023.

Governments are not yet making the most of digital tools and data to improve effectiveness and efficiency

Data, digital tools and AI all offer the prospect of efficiency gains. OECD countries score, on average, 0.61 on the Digital Government Index (on a 0-1 scale) but could improve their digital policy frameworks, whole-of-government approaches and use of data as a strategic asset. On average, only 47% of OECD governments’ high-value datasets are openly available, falling to just 37% in education and 42% in health and social welfare.

The green transition still demands significant progress in government tools and policies

Governing for the green transition will require sustained long-term commitment, enhanced institutional capabilities, and broad societal consensus. Among various tools, green public procurement (GPP) frameworks have been adopted by 35 of the 38 OECD countries. However, only 3 countries have developed methodologies to measure procurement practices’ environmental impact—such as CO₂ emissions saved—while another 11 are in the process of doing so.

What can governments do?

Engaging with people actively, strengthening accountability within public institutions and toward citizens, and delivering human-centred public services are key to enhancing individual’s sense of dignity in their interactions with government. This includes involving stakeholders and citizens in the lawmaking process and the design of public services, as well as more effectively implementing public integrity standards.

As people’s concerns about broader security—from economic stability to the green transition—continue to grow, governments must ensure citizens and society at large are better equipped to face the risks they may experience. This can be achieved, for example, by strengthening fair access to justice, ensuring education and training opportunities, and implementing emissions targets and environmental impact assessments.

Government must take a multi-pronged approach to boosting public sector efficiency and driving broader productivity gains. This involves simplifying regulations, harnessing the potential of data and AI while managing the associated risks, investing in skills, and optimising budgeting and procurement systems. Ensuring the accessibility, availability, security and re-useability of open government data is also essential to advancing progress, in particular with a view to supporting further uptake of artificial intelligence in government and society at large.

Country notes