Statistics Sweden Adopts CC0 License for Open Data

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2021-07-19 22:00:06

Statistics Sweden, the national Swedish agency for statistics, changed the, license for their open data to CC0 on July 1. The decision, which was taken on May 25, makes it much easier to reuse statistics from the agency. Among other things, it will be possible to upload it to Wikidata. Hopefully, this can inspire more agencies in Sweden to make the same decision, as well as agencies for statistics in other countries.

More and more agencies in Sweden adopt CC0 as a license for their open data. The Swedish government has taken measures to increase the capability of Swedish government agencies to make open data accessible. The fact that an agency as central as Statistics Sweden makes it easier for others to reuse their data is important, in this context.

The difference between their previous license, CC BY, and CC0, is that attribution is required for the former, but not for the latter. In Wikidata, the structured, linked database run by the Wikimedia movement, sources are always attributed for larger uploads. Wikidata requires, however, CC0, in order to make it easier for others to come up with creative solutions by using the information in Wikidata.