Catalonia consolidates its position in the top 5 of the most digitized territories in Europe. It has done so for the fourth consecutive year, and behind Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the Netherlands. This is indicated by the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) Catalonia 2022 report, prepared by the Cercle Tecnològic on behalf of the Government and following the methodology of the European Commission (EC) to elaborate its digitalization analysis among EU member states.
According to the report, Catalonia has a degree of digitalization of 63.9%, located 11.9 points above the EU median. This figure also represents an increase of 1.6 points compared to Catalonia's degree of digitalization in 2021. Thus, it reaffirms its outstanding degree of digitalization, and does so with favorable progress in all the dimensions analyzed by this study, ranging from the integration of technology in the business sector to the digital skills of citizens, passing through available technologies and the digitalization of public administrations.
Specifically, the report addresses digitalization in the dimensions of human capital, connectivity, integration of digital technology, and digital public services. Catalonia improves in all of them, especially in the area of Connectivity, with 13.6 points above the previous report, reaching a degree of digitalization of 72.8%.
The report shows that Catalonia continues to advance in a digital transformation that encompasses citizens, administrations, and companiesThis area encompasses technologies such as fixed broadband and its implementation, which place Catalonia in second place behind Denmark in this dimension. Human Capital has been the one that has experienced the most modest improvement, of 0.51 percentage points more compared to 2021, in an area that includes indicators such as user competencies, training and employment in ICT, in which Catalonia is at a digitalization degree of 54.2%.
For its part, the Digital Technology Integration area analyzes aspects such as business digitalization and e-commerce. Catalonia has reached a value of 43.5% in this area, above the European average of 36% and 3.55 points above the 2021 report. It also improves in the figures for Digital Public Services: it adds 5 points to a degree of 85.2%, compared to 67.3% in Europe. In this context, Catalonia consolidates itself as one of the most digitized territories in Europe, and continues to advance in a digital transformation that encompasses citizens, administrations, and companies.