Despite increased levels of ICT use the digital divide remains, show Eurostat figures
One week before the opening of the World Summit on the Information Society, Eurostat has released new data on the digital divide in Europe, showing that the gap is mainly a matter of age and education. During the past decade, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become widely available, i.e. accessible and affordable, to the general public. However, a gap remains between users and non-users or between 'haves' and 'have-nots'. The reasons for this digital divide range from problems of infrastructure or access to a lack of computer literacy skills necessary to take part in the information society. Eurostat's 'Statistics in focus' looks at the differences between societal groups and their access to and use of ICTs. In the EU25, for example, 85 per cent of students (aged 16 or over in school or university) used the Internet during the first quarter of 2004, as did 60 percent of employees, 40 per cent of the unemployed and 13 per cent of the retired, compared to an EU25 average of 47 per cent for individuals aged 16 to 74. This divide by employment status is also reflected in educational level: only 25 per cent of those with at most lower secondary education used the Internet during the first quarter of 2004, while the proportion rose to 52 per cent for those who had completed secondary education, and 77 per cent for those with a tertiary education. When looking at the Member State level, in all EU countries for which data are available there is a higher level of Internet use among the higher educated than among the lower. There is no significant link between the overall level of Internet penetration and the size of this divide. The divide is wider than the EU average in southern countries (Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy) and in the new Member States (with the exception of Slovakia and Estonia). Only in the Nordic countries and Germany more than half of the lower educated use the Internet during the first quarter of 2004, while the proportion of the higher educated who used the Internet fell below 50 per cent only in Lithuania (38 per cent) and Greece (48 per cent). In all Member States for which data are available, the highest proportion of Internet use during the first quarter of 2004 was recorded for students. Across the EU, employees generally registered the second highest proportion of Internet use. The highest levels were observed in the Nordic countries and the Netherlands (above 80 per cent), and the lowest in Greece (28 per cent), followed by Lithuania and Hungary. Within each educational level, the profiles for men and women are comparable, but amongst the less educated, men score much higher on use of computers, Internet and e-commerce than their female counterparts. The report also highlights the presence of children in a household as a major factor in access to ICTs: the proportion of homes with a personal computer is 50 percent higher among households with children than for childless households, and the same applies to home Internet connections and broadband. In nearly all Member States a lower proportion of the unemployed than employees used the Internet in the first quarter of 2004. Internet use amongst the unemployed ranged from less than 10 per cent in Lithuania to 86 percent in Sweden. The lowest proportion of Internet use was observed for the retired. In thirteen Member States less than 10 per cent of the retired had used the Internet, while only in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Luxembourg was the proportion more than a quarter. These gaps are consistent with those found by age, where the proportion of Internet users among those aged 16 to 24 was three times higher than for those aged 55 to 74. In the business sector, the small companies are catching up with larger ones when it comes to Internet access, although mainly because penetration is reaching saturation point among the latter group (more than 90 percent in all EU countries). Concerning the links between urbanisation and the take-up of ICTs, technological penetration remains lower in thinly populated, rural areas of the EU. Finally, the report looks at whether the digital divides among different groups of households, individuals or enterprises have narrowed over the recent years. The conclusion is that despite increasing levels of ICT usage in all sections of society, the divide is not being bridged. Whilst the gap between groups tends to remain stable over time in terms of percentage points, taking into account that the probability of being an Internet user rather than a non-user is growing at a slower pace in the disadvantaged groups, the relative divide is actually widening.