The dynamics of ICT skills in EU Member States.
Date: 2022-12-23
Institutions: Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Subjects: EU Member State, digital literacy, serial publication, social situation, statistics

Social 

Situation

Monitor

The dynamics of ICT skills in EU 
member states
Mikkel Barslund - June 2021

This research note aimed to develop a digital skills intensity index to measure the average number of 
digital skills used by workers according to the ISCO classification of their occupations.
The main advantage of this index is that it can be linked to the EU-LFS, which is the only frequent large-
scale harmonised survey in the EU, offering disaggregated sub-samples at regional (NUTS2 levels). 
The digital skills intensity indicator was built on top of the ESCO and Digital Competence Framework 
(DigComp) frameworks to provide an average digital skills intensity measure compatible with the ISCO 
classification available in the EU-LFS and many other surveys.

This study finds substantial variation in overall digital skills intensity across the 23 EU 
countries covered. Sweden and the Netherlands have the highest digital skills intensities, 
with Romania and Hungary having the lowest. The variation in outcomes is also evident 
among NUTS2 areas within countries, with particularly large variation in Romania.

Differences in economic structure measured by NACE categories (1 digit) explain 20-40% 
of observed differences across countries in overall skills intensities. 

There is a strong education gradient in occupational digital skills intensity. This is 
pronounced in countries with low overall digital intensity scores. Only small differences are 
found between men and women in average occupational digital skills intensity.

Considering the period 2011-2019, the study finds no evidence of convergence among 
countries, nor regions in digital skills intensity in the labour market.

Figure 1. Country level digital skills intensity (2019 Average = 100)

Figure 2. Age gradient in digital skills intensity, 23 Member States, 2019

To download the full research note, please visit the SSM website

Contact details
Mikkel Barslund, senior research associate
KU Leuven (HIVA)

mikkel.barslund@kuleuven.be
+32 16 32 35 41

This document has been prepared for the European Commission however it reflects the views only of the authors, 
and the European Commission is not liable for any consequence stemming from the reuse of this publication. 
More information on the European Union is available on the Internet (http://www.europa.eu). 
© European Union, 2022
The reuse policy of European Commission documents is implemented based on Commission Decision 2011/833/
EU of 12 December 2011 on the reuse of Commission documents (OJ L 330, 14.12.2011, p. 39).
Except otherwise noted, the reuse of this document is authorised under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 
International (CC-BY 4.0) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This means that reuse is allowed 
provided appropriate credit is given and any changes are indicated.
For any use or reproduction of elements that are not owned by the European Union, permission may need to be 
sought directly from the respective rightholders. Icons © Flaticon (https://www.flaticon.com/)

PDF ISBN 978-92-76-60280-4      ISSN 2811-6798    doi: 10.2767/960321  KE-CF-22-002-EN-N