Abstract: Open government data (OGD) is an important part of the national public data resources system. The 14th Five-Year Plan emphasizes the enhancement of public accessibility and sense of engagement through the construction of a digital society. Citizens as the key stakeholders and primary beneficiaries, are central to the utilization of OGD. Thus, this study builds a research model focused on OGD cognition, OGD demand, OGD access, and OGD consumption and takes the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan as the dividing point to investigate and explore changes in Chinese citizens’ OGD utilization from these four aspects. Considering the discovered changes and the tasks proposed by the 14th Five-Year Plan regarding OGD, this study discusses possible approaches for the future OGD development in China.

Key words: Open government data, Citizens, Open data, Data utilization, Open government data portal