The main results of the survey are that the state’s records management system is continuing to improve. The understanding of the data subjects of the legal requirements for the government’s records management system has increased greatly in recent years, resulting in a better state of records management.

Currently, 80% of institutions, offices and companies in the state are measured at the highest level of the development model of archiving and document management, which is a measure of how parties meet laws, regulations and requirements for archiving and document management. For the first time, the parties required to deliver documents are measured at the development level 4, which is defined as exemplary archiving and document management. These parties are:

• Borgarholtsskóli

• The Financial Management Authority

• Fjölbrautaskólinn í Garðabæ

• Fjölbrautaskólinn við Ármúla

• Ministry of Health

• The Nordic Health Institute

• National Library of Iceland - University Library

• Landsnet hf.

• Ministry of Food

• The District Commissioner in the Capital Region

• The District Commissioner of Northwest Iceland

• State work inspections

• National Museum of Iceland

• National Archives of Iceland

Further information on the development of the state's archives and records management and the status of individual state-delegated entities in 2024 can be found.

Other findings from the survey include that about 1,900 institutions, offices and companies use electronic data sets in their work, but the use of electronic data sets has increased in line with increased emphasis on digital public services. Alongside the increased use of electronic data sets, document creation and preservation of paper documents has decreased. Currently, about 61,100 shelves of paper documents are in the possession of the state’s delivery-related entities, which was 106,000 in 2021, so the volume has decreased by 42%.

This is mainly due to increased emphasis on the use of electronic data collections and electronic custody, the regular grist of paper documents and increased reception of paper documents at the National Archives for long-term preservation. The normal development is that paper holdings are decreasing, but electronic records are growing in the same order until all the state’s holdings are almost entirely in electronic form. It is expected that in the next 30 years the National Archives will accept the paper that has already been created by the state, and in this case the library’s paper collection will expand by 85-100% at the same time.