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Government at a Glance 2019 presents a dashboard of key indicators of public sector
performance and policies that governments are implementing to reconnect with their
people, improve equality and spur more inclusive growth. The policy chapter focuses
on how “peoplecentric” public services are performing in terms of access, responsiveness
and quality. The report provides outcome indicators on education, health and justice,
complemented with measures of how people perceive those public services.
The publication also reviews, through internationally comparable indicators, public
governance practices and reforms from the perspective of people‑centricity, for example
in budgeting, regulatory governance, public procurement and the use of open government
data.
Key findings
Persistently high debt levels reduce governments’ ability to react to economic shocks
The average fiscal deficit has steadily improved since 2009, reaching 2.2% of GDP
in 2017, although still below pre‑crisis levels of 1.7%.
Average gross government debt in 2017 reached 110% of GDP in OECD countries, reducing
countries’ room for manoeuvre.
General government expenditure on social protection and health, combined, accounted
for over 21% GDP in OECD countries in 2017. Both showed an increase since 2007, primarily
due to an aging population: 1.5 percentage points for social protection and 1.1 percentage
points for health.
Public investment on average represented 3.1% of GDP in 2017 and is still 0.5 percentage
points lower than in 2007. There is a need to reduce the investment gap; increasing
public investment can contribute to economic growth and provide needed capital for
tackling climate change and implementing the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
While public employment has been generally steady over time, not all public employees
are treated equally
Employment in general government is around 18% of total employment across OECD countries,
unchanged compared to 2007.
There are persistant gender gaps in the public sector workforce. For example, men
are over‑represented in higher‑level court judges (67% of total) and in politics.
On average, women account for 30% of seats in lower/single houses of parliaments in
OECD countries and about one‑third of ministerial positions in central government
in 2019.
In the central government, statutory civil servants make up, on average, 68% of the
workforce and have more job security, better career advancement and more rigorous
recruitment processes than other public employees.
A growing number of countries are pursuing budget practices that focus on the impact
of budgetary decisions on key population groups and policy areas
In 2018, close to half of OECD countries surveyed have implemented gender budgeting
and about one‑quarter have enacted gender budgeting into legislation.
In 2018, around one‑quarter of OECD countries surveyed published the environmental
and climate impact of budget measures; a similar number of countries have provided
information on the effects of the budget on societal well‑being, and only 25% of countries
have reflected the Sustainable Development Goals in performance budgeting systems.
Stakeholder consultation on draft laws and regulations is widespread in OECD countries,
yet it usually occurs late in the process and stakeholders are seldom provided with
feedback about the impact of their comments
All surveyed OECD countries require stakeholder engagement for the development of
at least some regulations.
In twenty‑eight OECD countries in 2016, the centre of government consulted directly
with stakeholders on policies.
Compared to 2014, countries have slightly improved their stakeholder engagement practices,
more for primary laws ‑ up from a score of 2 (on a scale from 1 to 4) in 2014 to 2.2
in 2017 ‑ than for subordinate regulations (from 2 to 2.1).
Governments are increasingly using public procurement to advance sustainability goals.
Public procurement accounted on average for 12% of GDP in OECD countries in 2017.
All OECD countries had implemented green public procurement strategies in 2018, with
an increasing number using public procurement to promote inclusive growth (29 countries),
innovation (26 countries), and responsible business conduct (22 countries).
OECD countries continue to show progress in making data from public bodies available
to all in open, free and accessible formats
Thirty out of 33 OECD countries require government data to be available free of charge,
twenty‑nine require data to be available with open licence, and thirty‑one require
data to be provided in machine‑readable formats. Twenty‑one countries prioritise building
skills and capacities within the public administration to reuse data.
The Open, Useful and Re‑usable (OURdata) Index, which benchmarks open government data
policies and their implementation, increased in 2019 compared to 2017. Such an increase
reflects improvements in all the underlying indicators: data availability, accessibility,
and government support for reuse. Previously low‑performing countries are catching
up to frontrunners such as Korea, France and Japan.
In 2016, in twenty‑one OECD countries, the centre of government was involved in designing
open government strategies and initiatives, and in twenty countries in implementing
them as well.
While trust in government has returned to pre‑crisis levels, people’s sense of political
efficacy remains low
People’s trust in their government, a measure that has deteriorated since 2007, has
recovered back to 45% in the OECD area, a value similar to the pre‑crisis level. Trust
in government has increased in 16 countries such as Germany, Japan, Korea, Poland
and Switzerland.
On average, in 2016, only 37 percent of people in OECD countries felt they had an
influence in what the government does, with this share dropping to 20% or less in
Italy and Slovenia.
On average, citizen satisfaction with health and education and confidence in the judiciary
have slightly increased in the OECD, but inequalities persist among population groups
In 2018, 70% of citizens were satisfied with the availability of health care, 66%
of citizens were satisfied with the education system and schools, and 56% had confidence
in the judicial system and courts across OECD countries.
Access, responsiveness and quality of services (education, health and justice) is
improving in most countries. For example, the percentage of youth not in education,
employment nor training (NEET) has decreased from 6.9 in 2012 to 5.2 in 2018.
There are persisting inequalities among population groups. For example, unmet care
needs for medical examination were 3.2 percentage points higher among low‑income than
among high‑income individuals in 2017.