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The Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard

Digital transition

Digital transition and the Single Market – why does it matter?

Beyond the free movement of goods, services, people and capital, the Single Market framework aims to achieve clear objectives for the digital transition of the EU economy and society. The indicators in this section measure the performance of the Single Market in selected areas relevant to this transition.

Share of businesses with online sales across EU borders

This indicator measures the share of businesses that made electronic sales to other EU countries or the rest of the world. It refers to all manufacturing and services sectors, excluding the financial sector and agriculture.

The indicator covers businesses with at least 10 employees or self-employed people, therefore excluding micro-enterprises. It distinguishes between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large businesses. It also distinguishes between sales made to other EU countries (intra-EU) and sales made to the rest of the world (extra-EU). Higher values suggest a higher degree of internationalisation supported by digital tools. 

Source: Eurostat isoc_ec_esels, European Union survey on ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises, 2013-2021. Data are not available for all years.

Digital intensity in SMEs

This indicator measures the share of SMEs with at least a basic level of digital intensity.

The digital intensity score is based on counting how many out of 12 selected technologies are used by businesses. A basic level requires a business to use at least four technologies. The set of technologies considered by the indicator can vary between different survey years, depending on the questions included in the survey (see DII v1 v2 v3 v4 2015-2023.xlsx (europa.eu).

Source: Eurostat isoc_e_dii, see also: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/2023-report-state-digital-decade.

Adoption of digital technologies by companies

This indicator measures the degree of companies’ adoption of digital technologies: data analytics, cloud and artificial intelligence (AI).

The data analytics series is the percentage of businesses using data analytics tools. 

The cloud series measures the percentage of businesses purchasing at least one of the following cloud computing services: I) hosting a database; II) accounting software applications; III) customer relationship management software; and IV) computing power.

The AI series measures the percentage of businesses employing 10 or more people that use at least one AI technology.

The indicator is calculated for all businesses in manufacturing and service sectors, excluding the financial sector.

Source: Eurostat

ICT specialists (average of female and male, % of employment)

This indicator measures the share of employed ICT specialists out of total employment. The definition of ICT specialists is based on the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08) and includes ICT service managers, ICT professionals, ICT technicians, ICT installers and servicers.

Source: Eurostat, Table isoc_sks_itspt: ICT specialists - total

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