International open-data licences (2026): UK OGL v3, OECD CC BY 4.0, Eurostat, World Bank
Created 2026-05-22
The international open-data licensing landscape, 2026:
UK Open Government Licence v3.0:
- Attribution: "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0."
- https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
OECD:
- "You can extract from, download, copy, adapt, print, distribute, share and embed Data."
- CC BY 4.0 adopted as default for most written content as of 1 July 2024.
- https://www.oecd.org/en/about/oecd-open-by-default-policy.html
Eurostat:
- "Reuse is authorised provided the source is acknowledged."
- Some maps/images carry separate terms per Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
- https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/help/copyright-notice
World Bank Open Data:
- Default: CC BY 4.0
- Prescribed attribution: "The World Bank: Dataset name: Data source (if known)."
- Microdata and third-party-sourced indicators often have stricter terms.
- https://data.worldbank.org/summary-terms-of-use
Pattern: CC BY 4.0 is increasingly the international default. Attribution is cheap; mis-attribution can terminate the licence. See Reference: compliance-grade attribution checklist by open-data source for the full compliance matrix.