ZAGREB, May 19, 2018 – Croatia made progress last year on the European Union’s Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) – it ranks 22nd out of the 28 EU member states, while in subcategories of the index it ranks 8th.
The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) is a composite index that summarises relevant indicators on Europe’s digital performance and tracks the evolution of EU member states in digital competitiveness. The DESI measures the performance of 28 EU member states in a number of areas, including connectivity, digital skills, integration of digital technology, and digital public services.
Croatia scored 46.7 on the DESI 2018, ranking 22nd out of the 28 EU member states. It moved up one spot from 2017.
Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands have the most advanced digital economies in the EU followed by Luxembourg, Ireland, the UK, Belgium and Estonia. Romania, Greece and Italy have the lowest scores on the DESI.
Croatian citizens are above average internet users and enterprises are also keen to employ digital technologies. Croatia’s greatest challenge in digital remains its low performance in connectivity (rank 27). Rural broadband connectivity and fast broadband coverage are limited, while prices for fixed broadband remain the highest in Europe.
Croatia is making good progress on human capital. The number of ICT specialists increased from 2.7 % to 3.3 % and the share of graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in the 20-29 years old cohort went up as well, reaching 1.7 %.
In terms of the propensity of individuals to use Internet services, Croatia continued to make good progress over the last year, and improved from rank 14 to rank 11. This continues to be the dimension where Croatia scores best and well above the EU average.
Croatian Internet users read news online (91%, 2nd in Europe), listen to music, watch videos and play games online, watch films and make video calls over the Internet. They use social networks and online banking and use Internet for online shopping.
Over the last year, Croatia made slow progress on the Integration of Digital Technology by businesses, and fell back from rank 17 to rank 21 because other countries were progressing faster.
In terms of eGovernment, Croatia is progressing but remains at rank 25 in the DESI 2018.
