Postal Development Report 2021

This report examines the state of postal development around the world in 2021, building on the Integrated Index for Postal Development (2IPD) which currently ranks 168 countries across four dimensions: reliability, reach, relevance and resilience. Switzerland, Germany and Austria top the ranking, followed by Japan and France. Belarus, Brazil, Ghana, Singapore and Tunisia have also obtained encouraging results and currently lead their respective regional groups. As shown by greater volatility within the ranking, many postal operators around the world are still adjusting to the new normality brought by the pandemic. The report exploits the information embedded in the 2IPD’s reliability pillar, which measures the delivery times of mail items, to quantify the operational disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The main finding is that the logistical bottlenecks experienced in 2020 have severely affected the reliability of postal operations, with average domestic delivery times increasing by 13% in 2020 with respect to 2019, before returning to pre-crisis levels in 2021. The results of the report also suggest that, even if disruptions in global supply chains are eventually absorbed, gaps in postal development are likely to remain a considerable challenge for the sector in the coming years.

Postal Development Report 2021