Data provided by with support from The World Bank Institute

Original Methodology

OpenCorporates, supported by the World Bank Institute via its Open and Collaborative Private Sector initiative, developed and implemented a methodology in order to develop an Open Company Data Index. As part of the process, and with the help of the open data community, OpenCorporates visited over 100 registers between March and June of 2012, to score the access to the data and the ability to reuse that data. Since then, the information has been updated as part of a policy of updating the data in a timely manner should the information change, or should errors be discovered.

As part of a significant expansion of the Open Company Data Index, we extended it to every country in the world, and have taken this opportunity to review the methodology, and have made some revisions. More information on the new methodology can be found here. The current scores on the site reflect this newer methodology, and this page exists for historical record, so the methodologies can be compared.

The Challenge

One of the challenges in producing this report is that good information about company registries in different countries or jurisdictions is in short supply.

Despite the importance of company registries, as they are usually intended to be the canonical reference source for the legal information about companies, they are often hard to find. There is no comprehensive directory of company registries, making them difficult to track down, either through central government sites, or through search engines.

Once registries have been found, they are often difficult to use. It is often unclear if a registry covers all companies in a jurisdiction. The quality or accuracy of the information contained in these registries is often in doubt, and frequently the register’s legal status is not mentioned. All too often most or all of the data is difficult to view.

Scoring

Company registers should be public, as they are the public record of artificial entities given legal personality by the state for the benefit of society. In a free and open society, this important information should be free to use and reuse for all, without charge and without restrictive license conditions.

This material should be in the public domain, with no license restrictions at all. For this survey, scoring has been done based on whether the license complies with the generally accepted Open Knowledge Definition.

Additionally, the underlying data should be available to all without fee, and without restrictions, as machine-readable data. If the data is not available freely, it can only be accessed by those with the resources to pay, thus undermining scrutiny, innovation, and a free and open market. Scores were assessed on the following basis: (with a total of a possible 100 points):

1. Freely searchable information: 20 points

Is basic information is online and available to search without charge or registration?

This is the base minimum threshold for an open company register. In short, if a company register cannot be searched for without charge, restriction or registration (which implies restriction) then the register is essentially closed to the public.

In cases where there are central registers that aggregate local regional registers (as in the case of Spain or Brazil), scoring is based on this central register, rather than the regional registers.

2. Licensing: up to 30 points

Is there an explicit open licence (e.g. CC-0, Open Government Licence)?

  • 30 points for a licence that conforms to the Open Knowledge definition;
  • 5 points for no explicit licence;
  • 0 points for a licence that explicitly prevents reuse or otherwise fails to conform to the Open Knowledge definition, including catch-all closed licences (e.g. All Rights Reserved).

3. Data freely available: 20 points

Is the information freely available as data, either as an openly licensed data dump or via an openly licensed API?

  • 20 points if the data is freely available
  • 0 points if there are any restrictions to having the data freely available

4. Directors: 10 points

Does the publicly available information include a list of company directors for each company?

  • 10 points if it includes a list of company directors for each company
  • 0 points if it does not include a list of company directors for each company

5. Filings: 10 points

Does the publicly available information include statutory filings (e.g. Annual Reports) for each company?

  • 10 points if it includes statutory filings for each company
  • 0 points if it does not include statutory filings for each company

6. Shareholdings: 10 points

Does the publicly available information include significant shareholdings for each company?

  • 10 points if it includes significant shareholdings for each company
  • 0 points if it does not include significant shareholdings for each company

Errors and corrections

OpenCorporates has a policy of correcting errors as soon as they are brought to our attention. If you believe that any of the scores on this index are incorrect or out-of-date, please contact us at info@opencorporates.com