Report name: GovTech Maturity Index 2025: Tracking Public Sector Digital Transformation Worldwide

Who wrote this report?

The GovTech Maturity Index 2025 is a global update and analytical brief developed by the World Bank Group as part of its work on public sector digital transformation and governance reform. The report provides a comparative snapshot of public sector digital government maturity across economies worldwide, drawing on the GovTech Maturity Index framework and survey data.

The 2025 edition draws on survey responses from 158 participating economies, with over 1,000 public officials responding through a global online survey, and complements this with remote data collection for 39 non-participating economies using publicly available sources.

The index is designed to help governments understand the state of their GovTech capabilities and identify gaps and opportunities for strengthening whole-of-government (WoG) digital transformation.

Best quote

"Monitoring GovTech implementation is inconsistent and lacks standardization across economies. Establishing clear reporting frameworks and performance metrics is essential for tracking progress, ensuring accountability, and supporting evidence-based decision-making."

Key takeaways

  • Global progress is positive but uneven. Digital divides are widening. Since 2022, higher-income economies have generally advanced while low-income ones have regressed, and regional disparities persist (with Europe & Central Asia and North America leading, and Africa lagging).
  • Group A (“Extensive” maturity) has grown. In 2025, 80 economies (41%) are in Group A, up from 35% in 2022, reinforcing an overall upward trend with persistent bottlenecks.
  • Foundational whole-of-government building blocks are expanding, but not universal. Since 2022, 16-20% of economies reported establishing key shared systems such as government cloud, enterprise architecture, interoperability frameworks, and service bus/interoperability platforms, yet nearly half of economies still lack these critical systems.
  • Public service delivery is improving, with notable gains in core online services and digital ID. Over 75% of economies report core online services (e.g., tax portals, e-filing, e-payments, customs single window), and a new 2025 indicator shows 59% use digital ID for identification and online services.
  • Citizen engagement remains the least mature component. Challenges persist in maintaining open data and open government portals, and only 31% of economies publish citizen engagement statistics, indicating limited transparency on engagement outcomes.
  • New policy signals are now tracked. Two new indicators show that about 42% of economies have a Green Tech policy for GovTech initiatives and about 45% have ethical AI guidelines in place (with additional economies developing these policies).

What's in this report?

The GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI) offers a snapshot of digital transformation across 197 economies using 48 key indicators, grouped into four component indices:

  1. Core Government Systems Index (CGSI) – 17 indicators covering foundational systems and shared infrastructure for a whole-of-government approach (e.g., government cloud, interoperability framework, service bus, FMIS, HRMIS, e-procurement).

  2. Public Service Delivery Index (PSDI) – 9 indicators measuring the maturity of online service portals and citizen-centric delivery, including the use of digital ID in services.

  3. Digital Citizen Engagement Index (DCEI) – 6 indicators covering participation platforms, feedback mechanisms, open data, and open government portals.

  4. GovTech Enablers Index (GTEI) – 16 indicators capturing strategy, institutions, laws/regulations, digital skills, and innovation policies that support sustainable digital transformation.

The report is explicit that GTMI is not a ranking; it is an overview intended to identify gaps and highlight good practices that can inform digital transformation initiatives. Economies are grouped into four maturity categories: A (Extensive), B (Significant), C (Medium), D (Low).

Several findings stand out for implementation planning:

  • Back-office fragmentation is a persistent constraint. While the report notes progress in foundational shared platforms, it also records setbacks in payroll systems and Human Resource Management Information Systems (HRMIS), with implementation declining in about 11% (payroll) and 10% (HRMIS) of economies since 2022.
  • Whole-of-government (WoG) institutionalisation remains limited. A refined 2025 definition of institutionalised WoG identifies only 46 economies (23%) as meeting the threshold (effective use of enterprise architecture, interoperability framework, and shared data exchange platforms for systems and services).
  • Monitoring and reporting on uptake is weak. The report highlights that while many economies report developing policies and platforms, fewer can provide strong evidence on usage and performance, limiting course correction and continuous improvement.

Why should you read this report?

For public sector leaders trying to move from isolated “e-government” initiatives to sustained digital transformation, GTMI 2025 functions as a diagnostic and comparative analytical framework. It helps identify which building blocks are advancing globally, including shared core systems, citizen-facing portals, engagement mechanisms, and enabling laws and institutions, and where the most common bottlenecks remain, especially whole-of-government institutionalisation, fragmented core systems, and weak monitoring of uptake.

The report is also useful for strategy refresh: it notes that WoG adoption remains low and many strategies are outdated, while progress in innovation systems and data governance is improving, suggesting a need to align institutional arrangements, standards, and measurement with rapidly evolving technology and service expectations.

For readers interested in how digital government maturity underpins the responsible adoption of AI in the public sector, this report also complements Apolitical’s work on public-sector AI capability building.

Who is this report for?

This report is most useful for digital transformation leads, government CIO/CTO functions, governance and public sector modernisation teams, and policy advisers responsible for planning, sequencing, and monitoring digital government reforms. It is also relevant for teams working on data governance, interoperability, digital skills, procurement and innovation ecosystems, and for development partners supporting capacity-building across different income and regional contexts.

Find the full report:

GovTech Maturity Index 2025: Tracking Public Sector Digital Transformation Worldwide (World Bank)

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