In the 2021 Digital Economy and Society Index
, elaborated with data from 2020, Spain ranks 9th position among the 27 EU Member States.
This index is composed of four dimensions, which analyse: Human capital, Connectivity, Integration of digital technology and Digital public services. In 2021, the European Commission adjusted
Spain is a strong performer in Digital public services thanks to the digital-by-default strategy throughout its central public administration. Spain also performs very well in Connectivity, although gaps between urban and rural areas remain. On Human capital, Spain ranks 12th and has been improving over the last few years, but there is still room for progress, especially on the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) specialist indicator. Spain ranks 16th on the integration of digital technologies; its score is in line with the EU average and the increase in Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs) selling online is significant.
e-Government
Spain ranks 7th in the EU for digital public services, where it obtains 80,7 points, well above the EU average (68,1). This component of the report assesses five indicators: e-Government users, Pre-filled forms, Digital public services for citizens, Digital public services for businesses and Open data.
Indicators show a high level of online interaction between public authorities, citizens and business. 67% of Spanish online users engage actively with e-government services, compared with a 64% EU average. On the indicator for pre-filled forms (measuring the re-use of information across administrations to make life easier for individuals), Spain scored 78 points, well above the EU average of 63, thanks to the fact that the Spanish system does not request information from citizens and companies who give their consent for the Administration to collect them by their own means. On digital public services for citizens, Spain scores 82 for citizens (against the EU average of 75) and 94 for business (against 84).
Spain performs very well on the open data indicator, in which it occupies the second position among the EU countries, with a score of 94% (16 p.p. above the EU average)
