The government aims to make information available through open data and open standards wherever possible. This makes data easier to exchange. Government data is made available as open data for reuse by third parties, unless there are valid reasons not to do so.
National government encourages open data reuse
The national government encourages the reuse of open government data. For example, KNMI data is used by websites such as Buienradar. Other government datasets are also freely accessible, including those from Statistics Netherlands, the Electoral Council of the Netherlands, and the Dutch Cadastre. Currently, over 12,000 datasets are available on data.overheid.nl (Dutch). For more information on sharing your organisation’s data, see the updated guidance Active Disclosure: How to do it (Dutch), published on 6 January 2026 (Dutch). Consult the Open Data Guide (Dutch) for a framework on opening up data.
Characteristics of open data
Open data has the following characteristics:
- Public (under the Government Information Public Access Act).
- Free from copyright (or other third-party rights).
- Funded by public resources (made available for the performance of a designated task).
- Machine-readable.
- Available for reuse without restrictions or costs.
- Open data makes it easier to develop innovative services.
Benefits of reusing open government data
Reusing open government data has several benefits:
- Transparency in government operations and accountability (for example, by making budgets or procurement data available as open data).
- Economic and societal innovation (development of apps and information services).
- More effective and efficient government (actively using data to improve operational and service delivery processes: lower costs, higher performance).
Open source
Besides open data, open source plays a key role. Open source indicates that the source code for a website, programme or app is freely available. Anyone can read, modify or distribute it. Similar to open standards, open source software promotes greater transparency in ICT systems. The policy for open source is ‘open by default’.
