The focus of the 2005 survey is to assess digital literacy on basic skills in computer and Internet use. These e-skills can cover a wide range of activities from simply opening or moving files, to creating and managing complex computing services.

The study stresses that 37 per cent of the EU25 block’s population lacks the basic e-skills to compete in the knowledge society, but there are noticeable differences between countries, age groups and education levels.

In all Member States education level plays an important role in improving e-skills, the survey pointed out. Levels of non e-literacy fall as education levels rise. In the EU25, only 11% of those with higher education had no basic computer skills, ranging from 2% in Sweden to 24% in Estonia.

The study also shows that only a few people attend computer training courses, more than half of the population (16-74) never took a course. People engaging or attending training courses tend to have a high education degree or been young (17-24, probably in the framework of their studies).

Among students in the EU25, only a small percentage had no or low computer skills). In this group 41% had medium level skills while 43% had higher level skills.

Within the Member States for which data is available, more than half of the population surveyed had no basic computer skills (from 65 per cent in Greece to 10 per cent in Denmark).

The study observes that digital literacy is a particular problem for the older generation 65% of people aged 55 to 74 had no computer skills.

For internet use a similar conclusion can be drawn, more than half the citizens of Europe do not regularly use the Internet. Older people or those with a lower-level education are not often online. This means, the study says, that specific programmes for e-learning or jobsites aimed at those with a lower-level education may reach only a quarter of their potential target users.

Similarly unemployed people were more likely to have no computer skills than the population as a whole, except in Greece, where 56% of unemployed had no computer skills, compared to 65% of the total population.

Eurostat e-society 2005:
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/.../20062006-EN-AP.PDF [pdf]
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-NP-06-017/EN/KS-NP-06-017-EN.PDF [pdf]