Most European citizens are digitally active

The number of Europeans frequently using the Internet has grown over the past years. People have increasing trust in information technologies, use online services, and improve their skills in this area. However, the number of those who are absolutely unable to use digital technologies is still worryingly large. These findings have been released in the Digital Agenda Scoreboard, recently published by the European Commission.

According to the document, since 2010, the number of residents of the EU Member States that use the Internet at least once per week has grown from 60% to 72%. The most significant progress has been achieved in Greece, Romania, Ireland, the Czech Republic, and Croatia. Countries with the best results (over 90% of the population using the Internet) are Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg. The number of EU citizens who never used the Internet makes up 20% (a third less than four years ago).

There has been significant progress in the use of the Internet by disadvantaged groups (unemployed people, those with low education levels and older groups) – from 41% four years ago to the current 57%.

Access to the Internet has influenced the development of online trade: 47% of EU citizens shop online, which is an increase of 10 percentage points.

The Scoreboard also mentions that all European citizens now have access to broadband, with several options (optical fiber, cable, ADSL or 3G/4G mobile access), and affordable tariffs to satellite broadband.

European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes said: “Most Europeans now live digital lives and they are hungry for more. We have solved the Internet access problem. But the digital skills gap persists. Unless we all do more, we will face a digitally illiterate underclass in Europe.”

The main challenges mentioned in the document of the European Commission are as follows: lack of high-speed broadband infrastructure, especially in rural areas (only 18% of rural households in the EU have access to high-speed broadband); imminent deficit in digital skills (only 14% of businesses with less than 250 employees are selling online). None of the EU countries is close to reaching the average EU target of 33% by 2015. In 2013, e-Government services stagnated, being used by only 42% of the EU population. Continuing at his rate, Member States are unlikely to reach the 50% target set for 2015.

Overall, progress in the use of the Internet has been satisfactory for 95 of the 101 targets set for 2015.

The infographic can be seen HERE.
 
Source of photo: http://cdn-static.zdnet.com/