Current Status

On Track — Saudi Arabia has risen 25 places on the UN E-Government Development Index (EGDI), reaching 6th globally in the 2024 survey. This places the Kingdom one position from its top-5 target and reflects world-class digital government service delivery.

Key Metrics

Trend Analysis

Saudi Arabia’s ascent on the UN E-Government Development Index represents one of the most dramatic leaps in the survey’s history. Rising from 44th in 2016 to 6th in 2024 — a gain of 38 places overall and 25 places from the 31st position in 2022 alone — places the Kingdom among elite digital government nations alongside Denmark, Finland, South Korea, Singapore, and Estonia. On the complementary E-Participation Index, which measures citizen engagement through digital platforms, Saudi Arabia has achieved the top position globally.

The transformation is attributable to a comprehensive digital government strategy executed through the Yesser e-Government Programme and the Digital Government Authority. The foundational investments include the Absher platform (serving over 25 million users for identity, visa, and government services), the Etimad unified government procurement platform, the SADAD payment system (processing over 200 million transactions annually), and the Nafath digital identity system. These platforms have enabled over 97 per cent of government services to be accessible online, with many available exclusively through digital channels.

The architectural approach has been distinctive. Rather than digitising existing paper-based processes, Saudi Arabia has fundamentally redesigned government service delivery around digital-native workflows. The “Government as a Platform” approach integrates data across agencies, enabling proactive service delivery where government systems anticipate citizen needs and provide services without requiring applications. The establishment of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) has provided the institutional backbone for data governance, AI adoption in government, and the development of national data infrastructure. The COVID-19 pandemic, while challenging, accelerated digital adoption across both government and citizen populations, creating a step-change in digital service utilisation that has proven permanent.

Methodology

The UN E-Government Development Index is published biennially by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. It is a composite index comprising three sub-indices: the Online Services Index (OSI), measuring the scope and quality of government services available online; the Telecommunication Infrastructure Index (TII), measuring ICT infrastructure availability; and the Human Capital Index (HCI), measuring education and literacy levels. Each sub-index is normalised on a 0-to-1 scale, and the EGDI is the arithmetic average. The assessment covers all 193 UN Member States. The Online Services component is evaluated through expert assessment of national government portals and service delivery platforms. The E-Participation Index is a supplementary measure evaluated separately. Saudi Arabia’s 2024 score of 0.9501 places it among the highest-performing nations globally.

Related Priorities

Digital government excellence enables multiple Vision 2030 objectives. It supports economic competitiveness by reducing administrative burden on businesses (supporting Ease of Doing Business improvements and FDI attraction). It enables efficient delivery of citizen services that contribute to the World Happiness Index. The digital infrastructure underpins the Home Ownership programme (Sakani platform), healthcare delivery (Seha telemedicine), and education reforms. The data infrastructure developed for e-government supports the Kingdom’s ambitions in artificial intelligence and data-driven governance. The World Competitiveness ranking benefits from strong e-government performance, as digital governance is a key sub-indicator.

Outlook

Reaching the top 5 requires Saudi Arabia to surpass one of the current leaders — Denmark, Finland, Republic of Korea, Singapore, or Estonia — all of which are established digital government leaders with decades of investment. The gap from 6th to 5th is narrow (typically less than 0.01 on the EGDI score), and Saudi Arabia’s momentum suggests this is achievable in the next assessment cycle (2026).

The principal competition comes from nations with higher telecommunications infrastructure penetration (Nordic countries have near-universal broadband) and higher human capital indices (reflecting educational attainment scores). Saudi Arabia’s strength in online services — where it already scores among the world’s highest — provides a competitive advantage. The Vanderbilt Portfolio projects Saudi Arabia will achieve top-5 status by 2026 or 2028 at the latest, making this one of the most confidently projected KPI achievements in the Vision 2030 framework. The achievement is particularly noteworthy as it demonstrates competitiveness in a knowledge-economy domain where Saudi Arabia had no historical advantage.