Just 56% of the EU population currently have basic digital skills, with a long way to go to achieving the EU’s target of 80% by 2030, a new report has found.
The Digitalisation in Europe report found that despite 90% of EU residents going online at least once a week (as of 2023), digital competence is still lacking in many EU member states.
The share of people with ‘basic’ or’ above basic’ proficiency when it comes to digital skills was highest in the Netherlands (83%) and Finland (82%), followed by Ireland (73%), Denmark (70%), and Czechia (69%).
ICT specialists
According to the report, ICT specialists currently account for 5% of the EU’s workforce – or more than 10 million employees. This too indicates that more work needs to be done to achieve the 2030 target of 20 million.
Sweden boasts the highest percentage of employed ICT specialists, with 9%), followed by Luxembourg and Finland (both 8%), while the smallest share was reported in Greece and Romania (both 3%).
Gender disparities also exist among the ICT workforce, with men comprising 81% of ICT specialists, with women accounting for 19%.
Digital training
Other findings from the study include the level to which firms provide digital training to their employees, with just over a fifth (22%) of EU businesses providing digital skills training to their staff in 2024.
This percentage ishigher among large enterprises (73%) compared to SMEs (21%). Finland (38%), Belgium (37%), and Denmark (35%) boast the highest shares of enterprises providing ICT training to their staff.
‘Integrating digital technologies into all areas of a business enables companies to improve their products and services, and to gain competitiveness, for example by shifting their sales online,’ Eurostat said in the report. ‘The EU has set itself two main goals for the digital transformation of businesses by 2030: more than 90% of SMEs should reach at least a basic level of digital intensity and 75% of EU companies should use cloud computing services, perform big data analysis or use AI.’ Read more here.
