State of the sector

Each year we publish the latest data maturity benchmarks and fresh analysis of the changing needs and challenges around data for organisations and sectors. 

Data maturity is an organisation’s journey towards improvement and increased capability in using data. Data Orchard’s framework describes five stages of data maturity (Unaware, Emerging, Learning, Developing and Mastering) across seven key themes: Uses, Data, Analysis, Leadership, Culture, Tools, and Skills.

In 2019 we launched the online Data Maturity Assessment tool which enables organisations to measure and benchmark where they are on their journey. There is a free version for individual users, an organisation version for whole-staff teams, and a cohort version for multiple organisations.

The tool has now been used by almost 15,000 people from all kinds of organisations and sectors, and from all over the world. This has provided a rich wealth of data and a unique insight into the changing state of data maturity. Each year we produce a report sharing our analysis of progress.

Whilst originally designed for not-for-profit organisations, the high proportion of users from the public sector and commercial led to a redesign in 2022 to make the assessment sector agnostic and suitable for all. Our early reports focused just on the data from the not-for-profit sector. In 2023 we began to include the public sector analysis in our reports. Our 2025 report will present, for the first time, what we’ve learned from tracking trends and comparing progress across ALL three sectors.