Why digitisation is sometimes about as real as the cast of a reality-TV show.

Every government wants to digitise. Some do it; others seem to. Because when we look behind the facade of digitising government, there’s sometimes more analogue in there than in a video rental shop from 1990. This exact contradiction is what the World Digital Government Rankings 2025 addresses.

The study’s central insight is uncomfortable, but clear:

Digital services are no proof of a digital state.

Because even though more and more authorities work with portals and digital forms, there’s often still an analogue backend behind them. Forms get printed, sent by email, and there’s no real linkage or communication between all the many separate websites. But that’s exactly what makes a truly digitised state: every authority connected in one portal or network. Data entered once gets stored and exchanged. Analogue actions no longer happen.

Germany in particular still has a long way to go here. But at least the direction is clear: once-only, one-for-all.

Does it also annoy you when you have to keep registering from scratch with authorities and entering your data all over again?

Source: World Digital Government Rankings (2025)

Image: Everyday basics for Unsplash.

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