Denmark and South Korea have topped a new index of the smartest nations, published by the European Commission.
The latest International Digital Economy and Society Index (I-DESI) rates leading nations on five digital scores – for connectivity, human capital (digital skills), use of the internet by citizens, integration of technology, and digital public services.
It compared European Union (EU) member states with 17 non-EU countries, taking the average across the five scores, as well as publishing scores for each count. Denmark topped the review with a score of 75.9. South Korea came second.
In total, six EU member states appeared among the top 10 countries.
To hide differences between its most advanced and least advanced member states, the EU has published a leaderboard with three EU average scores to sit alongside the 17 non-EU countries as a table of 20 ‘nations’.
The three EU entries in the table are for the top-performing four member states, the overall EU average, and the bottom four members states.
Canada and the US ranked in eight and ninth on the top-20 leaderboard. South Korea ranked highest among the 20 entries, on average. It also ranked highest, ahead of Switzerland, for connectivity.
Australia and Iceland rated highest for digital skills. Norway was highest for use of internet services by citizens Switzerland and Iceland were highest for digital enterprises, and Australia was highest for digital government.
The full table of 20 leading digital ‘nations’ is shown below; the performance of each in the five categories is shown relative to the average.
