South Korea topped the ranking of open government data releases among major countries, a global report showed Tuesday.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Korea recorded 0.98 out of 1 point in the ranking of “Open, Useful, Reusable Government Data.” The average score of the 30 OECD members was 0.58 point.

A higher score means the public information is more available and accessible on the national portal, and that the government actively supports the reuse of the data for creating public value, the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs explained.

The ranking was decided based on availability of information on national elections, the expenditure of both the central and municipal governments and census, accessibility of the information and the state support for the data reuse, it said.

Korea recorded the highest points in the availability criteria as it has provided over 400 public data utilization services, the largest number among the countries.

The “OUR Data Index” was introduced to better monitor and support the countries’ data policies after G8 countries adopted the Open Data Charter, the first international instrument to guide the implementation of open government data strategies.

As part of the efforts to further boost the civil use of the public data, the ministry vowed to open up information on the business and real estate industries by this year.

By 2017, it will also gradually release the highly demanded information of 36 fields such as education and health, the ministry added.

The results came as the Seoul government has been under fire for not sharing information on the hospitals affected by Middle East respiratory syndrome in late May. While the state expressed concerns over the potential business damage to the MERS-hit medical facilities, the public had strongly urged the government to release the information as a preventive measure against the virus.

Some civilians even voluntarily produced and shared their own online map denoting the MERS-hit hospitals.

The government finally unveiled the list of hospitals in early June as the number of confirmed patients rose.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)