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Knowledge and skills

Having the right skills can help us thrive, enjoy, and connect in our digital lives. That’s why every level of education is embracing the specialised and problem-solving skills we need to get the most from digital technologies.

Student's leisure time spent on digital devices

Students use of digital devices for 4+ hours of learning activities before, during, and after school.

Digital reskilling

In most OECD countries, 25%+ of businesses provided digital technology training for their employees, and in about half of countries, 20%+ of businesses provided training for workers who aren’t specialists in digital technology.

Gender gap in digital skills

In most countries, about 40-50% of people think their skills match well with how they use of computers, software, or applications at work.

Work and job quality

New technologies won’t necessarily lead directly to job losses. But they could change the type of jobs we do and how we work. Less tedious or dangerous tasks in a faster-paced workplace could offer us more time for more interesting tasks. And while AI can make us more efficient, it can also pose serious ethical challenges, including biases against women, people with disabilities, and ethnic or racial minorities.

Use of digitial devices at work

In most OECD countries, 50%+ of workers use computers regularly at work, with workers in large companies more likely to use computers and portable devices than workers in small and medium companies.

Collaboration

In most OECD countries, more people think digital technology has helped enhance collaboration, than not.

Autonomy

In most OECD countries, more people think digital technology has helped increase their autonomy at work, than not.

Work-life balance

Our ability to connect anywhere, at any moment, has changed how we experience time, blurring the lines between our personal lives, work or in the classroom. It can place strains on how we balance work and home, our studies and our family, and other parts we value in life. 

Hybrid work

Teleworking is mostly available to highly educated workers – the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway have the highest share of people working from home, with the opposite in Türkiye and Costa Rica with 90%+ people who don’t.

Working hours

In most OECD countries, using computers, laptops, smartphones or other computerised equipment at work has made working hours more irregular.

Screen time

In most OECD countries, 15%+ of 15-year-olds spend more than 5 hours on social networks on a typical weekend day, with the highest percentage in the U.S. and the lowest in Korea.

Health

How technology shows up in our life, how we're exposed to it, how we use it and what we use it for can impact our physical and mental health. Our health care systems are digitising medical records, expanding virtual healthcare access, and innovating treatment and consultation options with sensors, wearable technology, and other types of devices.

Virtual healthcare

The teleconsultation services vary between countries, but it’s more common in Israel, Spain, Lithuania and Estonia.

Health information

In over half of OECD countries, most people go online for health information – women more so than men. While older people and people with lower education levels do less so than others.

Health apps

Internet-connected devices for monitoring blood pressure, sugar level, body weight, or other health and medical care is most common in Iceland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, and Norway, and less so in Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, and Hungary.

Use of IoT devices (internet of things) to measure health

Internet-connected devices for monitoring blood pressure, sugar level, body weight, or other health and medical care is most common in Iceland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, and Norway, and less so in Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, and Hungary.

Social connections

Television and the telephone changed the way we connect with each other. And it's the same for new and emerging digital technologies with many people continuing to debate the quality and quantity of social connections we make in our digital lives.

Social media use

In most OECD countries, high-income people use social networking sites more than low-income people.

Social media risks

Across OECD countries, 6%+ more girls report cyberbullying than boys – with more reports from several Eastern European countries, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, and less from children in the U.S., Portugal and Spain.

Civic engagement

Digital technologies create new ways for people to protest, advocate, receive and share information, and access public services. The internet has brought public and private entities closer to the citizens and clients they serve. But people need the skills and tools to know what and who they can trust.

Online use of public websites

In the Nordic countries, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, Luxembourg, and Estonia, 75%+ of people interact with public authorities online, with older people and people with lower education levels being the least likely to use e-government services.

Exposure to misinformation

Most people in the Netherlands, Finland, Iceland, and Norway reported seeing untrue or doubtful online content in the past three months, with the least reports coming from people in Greece, Italy, and Austria.

Open government readiness

Although the differences between OECD countries are considerable, about one in five people find government websites difficult to use, for various reasons.

Environmental quality

Digital life has a growing impact on our environment. Direct effects can come from the valuable resources we use to produce and consume digital products or mine cryptocurrencies. While indirect effects can come from how digital technology makes life more resource and energy efficient, and more so every day.

Emissions footprint

For digital infrastructure in OECD countries, Hungary, the Slovak Republic, and Poland produce the most carbon dioxide per million USD at 20 tonnes while Finland, Sweden, and Slovenia produce the least.

Resource efficiency

Norway, Austria, and Finland collect more than 15kg of e-waste per person per year, while less than 12 OECD countries recycle 10kg+ of e-waste per person per year after collection.

Green behaviour

In most OECD countries (also within the European Union), 30%+ of people prioritise eco-design, the possibility to extend the life of a product, energy efficiency, or take-back schemes when they buy devices like a smartphone, tablet, or computer.

Personal safety

It's natural to want to feel safe in all aspects of our lives. Crime, conflict, harassment, and other challenges to our well-being can harm us in our digital life, just as they do in the real world. We need to know how to protect ourselves and have the right regulations and security technologies working together to protect our personal data.

Personal data protection

In most OECD countries, it’s rare to self-report a private information breach – with 5%+ of people in Korea and Chile, for example, reporting an online privacy infringement.

Cyber-security readiness

A virus or other computer infection impacted 10%+ of people in Israel, Korea, Chile, and Canada.

Sensitive data risks

More than 50% of Internet users in Portugal and Spain avoided buying something online in the last three months because of payment security or privacy concerns, compared to <10% of Internet users in Hungary, Estonia, and Poland.

Digital infrastructure

We don’t often see it, but digital infrastructure is everywhere, connecting us to our digital life. It includes the networks, cybersecurity, systems, programmes, and data we need to access the Internet and use our connected devices. It’s how we work, access support services and interact with our families, friends, colleagues, and wider society.

Access to 4G mobile broadband

In most advanced economies, 90% or more of the population is covered at least by 4G mobile network

Affordability

The cost of mobile internet services (data-only mobile broadband (2GB) basket prices) is on average less than 0.5% of GNI per capita in most advanced economies, but more than 1% of GNI per capita in South Africa, Columbia, India and Indonesia.

Inequality of internet use

There are relatively large differences in the internet use between the poorest and richest groups in most countries, but there is virtually no digital divide in some of them like Norway, Luxembourg, Iceland and the Netherlands.