European Commission report: For second year in a row, Croatia makes significant progress in digitalising society and economy

The European Commission has published its second Report on the State of the Digital Decade, taking stock of the EU's collective progress towards Europe's digital transition by 2030.

In 2023, Croatia made significant progress in increasing the number of ICT specialists, digitalising small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and building gigabit connectivity (fibre to the premises).

Croatia is well positioned in terms of basic digital skills, with 59% of the population possessing basic digital skills compared to the EU average of 55.6%. There is also a good gender balance in the distribution of digital skills. The share of the Croatian population with digital content creation skills (81.5%) is well above the EU average of 68.3%.

With a score of 67.2 for digital services available to citizens, compared to an EU average of 79.4, and 66.2 for digital services for business, compared to an EU average of 85.4, Croatia has room to improve its performance in the area of accessibility of digital public services. However, despite these data, Croatia is well above the EU average in the number of e-government users, which reflects a good level of digital skills of its population and underlines the importance of improving the provision of digital services.

In 2023, Croatia has shown a positive contribution to the EU Digital Decade targets on digital infrastructure, but there is still room for improvement in terms of rural coverage. In Croatia, 25.5% of rural areas are covered, compared to the EU average of 55.6%. Regarding FTTP coverage, Croatia has performed better, jumping from 54% in 2022 to 62.1% in 2023.

The digitalisation of SMEs in Croatia shows a diverse dynamic, with several indicators close to the EU average, such as e-commerce, where 11.3% is close to the EU average of 11.9%, and others where Croatia performs much better than the EU average, 29.5% compared to the EU average of 19.1%. Similarly, Croatia is among EU leaders in the use of data analytics by businesses (51.7% compared to the EU average of 33.20).

The European Commission also commended Croatia for its contribution to human-centred digital space by implementing new regulatory solutions that ensure safe and ethical application of digital technologies.

The second Report on the State of the Digital Decade shows that Croatia has been making a positive contribution to the goals of the European Union's Digital Decade through successful digitalisation that fosters competitiveness, resilience, sovereignty, European values and taking into account climate change.

The European Commission's Report on the State of the Digital Decade is a document that monitors and analyses the progress of the European Union and its Member States towards the 2030 digital transformation targets.

This report provides a detailed overview of achievements, challenges and strategic guidelines for digital transformation, covering key areas such as digital skills, digital infrastructure, digital transformation of business and digital public services.

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