Assessing the regional digital divide across the European Union-27

Resumen

Over the last years great efforts have been devoted to the analysis of the digital divide at the international level. In contrast, the evidence about the regional digital divide is still scarce, especially in the case of the European Union. Within this context, the aim of this paper is to remedy this deficiency, trying to throw some light on the state of ICT adoption across European regions. On the basis of a set of ICT-related indicators, we perform a factor analysis that leads us to the development of a ranking, identifying best-and-worst performing regions. The Top-10 mainly corresponds to Dutch regions, while Greece and Bulgaria occupy the Bottom-10. Hence, results show that the regional digital divide reflects to some extent the income gap. However, regional policy towards ICT seems to be having some positive implications for technology adoption. Finally, we assess the regional divides within each Member State.