The Index of Economy and Digital Society (DESI) 2019, published by the European Union, highlights that in Spain digital public services continue to be the dimension with the best results. The Spanish e-government is ranked number 4 in the EU countries, with a better score than in 2018.
All the indicators are significantly above the European average and in digital public services we are ahead of the other major countries, such as Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Likewise, Spain ranks second in open data and there is a high level of online interaction between public authorities and citizens. 76% of Spanish internet users actively participate with eGovernment services.
This year includes new indicators related to electronic health, such as the exchange of data between professionals and the electronic prescription, in which Spain also obtains a score above the European average.
The DESI 2019 highlights the investment in open data and the efforts made on the principle of "digital by default", which indicates that most public services are available digitally. However, there is still room for improvement for several indicators, especially on the use of eGovernment or pre-filled forms.
DESI 2019
The Index of Economics and Digital Society (DESI) celebrates five years in 2019 and summarizes five indicators of digital performance in Europe, allowing monitoring of the evolution of European Union member states in digital competitiveness. These five indicators are: connectivity, human capital, use of the Internet, integration of digital technology and digital public services.
According to DESI 2019, globally, analyzing all the indicators, Spain it ranks 11th out of the 28 EU Member States, also ahead of countries such as Germany, France or Italy.
It should be noted that the European Commission has implemented methodological changes that, applied retroactively, put Spain in 11th position in 2018, which is why Spain maintains its position with respect to last year. It should be noted, however, that the overall score has increased due to better performance in the dimensions of Digital Public Services and Connectivity.
Among all the dimensions, Spain stands out in the field of eGovernment, in which our country remains in fourth place. If the new methodology used by the European Commission is taken into account, Spain also improves its ranking in the Digital Public Services in two positions.
The DESI report also highlights the improvement in the dimension of Connectivity, where Spain moves from position 10 to position 9 and underlines the coverage of fast and ultra-fast networks, indicating that 88% of citizens have access to the latter.
With respect to the use of internet services, Spain is in the European average and above it in the integration of digital technology. However, the DESI report considers that there are significant differences in the connectivity between large populations and rural areas and that Spain must improve in the dimension of digital training, a message aligned with the recommendations presented by the European Commission on June 5.