Across the globe, discussions about digital sovereignty are gaining momentum. Governments, institutions, companies, and civil society are increasingly aware of the importance of controlling their own digital infrastructure. From concerns about data protection and vendor dependency to issues of political autonomy, the topic has moved from niche circles into mainstream political debate. In our new Digital Sovereignty Index, we reveal how countries compare in terms of digital independence!
Although the debate is global, the actual state of digital sovereignty varies greatly between countries. Policies may exist, but how much infrastructure truly operates locally instead of relying on the cloud? What choices do people make? And how does this compare to public sector policy?
Presentation of the Digital Sovereignty Index
To answer this question, we developed the Digital Sovereignty Index (DSI): a simple metric designed to illustrate the active use of self-hosted collaboration applications across nearly 60 countries. It represents the relative number of deployments of self-hosted productivity and collaboration tools per 100,000 citizens, compared to other nations.
We selected 50 of the most relevant self-hosted tools for digital collaboration and communication. These include platforms for file sharing, video conferencing, groupware, note-taking, project management, and more. We then measured their real-world usage by counting the number of identifiable server instances per country.
Uneven Progress and Surprising Gaps in Digital Sovereignty Across Europe and Beyond
The results of the first Digital Sovereignty Index reveal significant differences in the adoption of self-hosted infrastructure across Europe and beyond. Although public debate around digital sovereignty has gained momentum in recent years, the actual use of sovereign digital tools remains fragmented — and, in many places, surprisingly low.
Learn more about the Digital Sovereignty Index, how countries compare in terms of digital independence, and the methodology behind it on the website: dsi.nextcloud.com .
Contribute to the Digital Sovereignty Index
We look forward to your feedback to help refine the index over time, including improved search definitions and suggestions for additional tools to be included in future iterations. You can find more information on how to contribute on the DSI website.
Article adapted from „Digital Sovereignty Index: How countries compare in digital independence” by Christoph Weissthaner
