Spain remains at the forefront of the European Union’s major economies in digitisation and connectivity

The European Commission has today published its new ‘Report of the Digital Decade 2023’ (which replaces and extends the series of reports published in previous years entitled Index of Digital Economy and Societies -DESI- and includes the actions that each country has carried out to achieve the goals and objectives established in the Digital Decade), aimed at measuring and evaluating, through an individualized monitoring, the progress and evolution of each of the Member States of the European Union in the field of digitization.

In the report referring to Spain, the improvement in all the indicators compared to the previous DESI report is noted and the European Commission presents a very positive view of the efforts made in the different projects and digitization initiatives carried out with the Digital Spain Agenda, aligned with the objectives of the Digital Decade program.

The report highlights the commitment of the Spanish authorities in the field of digital transformation, as well as the important advances made in the four dimensions of the Digital Decade analysed in the document presented by the Commission: digital competences, digital infrastructures, digitalisation of companies and digitalisation of public services.

In addition, the European Commission values the leadership of our developed country in recent years in the promotion of digital rights with the Charter of Digital Rights and its influence in international forums such as the OECD and the Ibero-American General Secretariat. It recognizes Spain’s leadership in ethical AI and in becoming the first country in the Union to have a State Agency for Supervision of Artificial Intelligence.

Digital competencies

In terms of digital skills, Spain achieves good results in digital skills, with 64% of the population with basic digital skills (compared to 54% in the European Union) and 38% with more than basic skills (compared to 26% in the European Union). In addition, it is positioned as the fourth EU country in advanced digital skills.

The report shows important advances related, fundamentally, to the notable growth in the percentage of ICT graduates, going from 4% to 4.8% in just one year, placing Spain for the first time above the EU average (4.2%).

Spain also continues to increase the percentage of ICT specialists in total employment, from 4.1% to 4.3% of the total number of people of working age, and is on the podium in percentage of women experts in ICT, only behind Germany and France. The Commission recommends that Spain accelerate efforts in the field of digital skills to accelerate the increase in the number of ICT specialists, as well as promote the study of digital disciplines among women, to close the gender gap in this field.

The Commission points out that the percentage of companies offering ICT training to their employees in Spain already exceeds 20%; and it values the effort of the Government of Spain in implementing “high ambition” programs, such as the pact for Generation D, Educa en Digital, Uni Digital or the Digital FP Plan.

Digital Infrastructure

With regard to digital infrastructures, the report highlights the important contribution of Spain to the collective efforts of the EU to achieve the objectives of the Digital Decade in this area. The document underlines that “Spain is at the forefront of fiber deployment in the EU”, ranking 35 points above the EU average.

In fact, the country is a leader in the adoption of ultra-fast broadband –mainly with optical fiber-; more than 87% of the population with broadband access has these benefits (more than 100 Mbps).

Spain ranks first among the large European economies in coverage of very high capacity networks: 93% of individuals had access to very high capacity fixed networks (more than 100 Mbps), 20 points higher than the EU average.

It also points out that it is one of the countries with the best results in digital connectivity, despite its great extension (2nd in the EU), orography and high population – 48 million inhabitants.

The good results confirm the tangible results of the Digital Spain Agenda, the government’s strategy to make digitalization a lever for economic growth. In fact, Spain has allocated almost 30% of European Next Generation EU funds (20,000 million euros) to digitization.

In the last legislature, more than 2 billion euros have been invested for the universalization of digital infrastructures – fixed and mobile – within the framework of the Digital Spain Agenda. Specifically, to close the digital divide in ultra-fast fiber optic and satellite connectivity and to deploy 5G technology networks, with special attention to rural areas.

In this area, the report highlights that coverage is 82% in the population as a whole, 23 points more than in 2022, and highlights that 98% of the 5G spectrum has been allocated - 30 points above the EU average. This deployment is being carried out mainly by the private sector, and is complemented by public investment, in rural and sparsely populated areas. Public aid for 5G deployment will exceed €1 billion once the call for UNICO 5G Activa is launched.

Drive for innovation

The document also highlights that Spain has taken measures to increase the production of semiconductors in Europe and face the challenge of achieving digital autonomy in this sector with the launch of the PERTE Chip, which will mobilize an investment of 12.25 billion euros with European funds.

It also confirms that Spain is one of the Member States with the most co-investment agreements, thanks to which it is expected to play an important role in the development and deployment of innovative cloud solutions, through the Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services IPCEI (IPCEI-CIS). And it highlights the measures implemented to contribute to the development of the first computer with quantum acceleration in the EU through the program Quantum Spain or the program Missions of R&D in Artificial Intelligence.

Digitization of companies

As the Commission points out in the report