A Commentary on Scotland's Digital Performance

Summary

Digital Scotland Performs will track and measure Scotland's progress towards becoming a world-leading digital nation.

Work is underway to determine the sources that will be utilised to collect the data for this framework. This is likely to be a mix of existing data sources, such as the Scottish Household Survey, and new data collections, where no appropriate existing source is available.

In the meantime, the Scottish Government has produced a commentary on Scotland's digital performance under the four themes outlined in Digital Scotland Performs based on currently available data. Whilst this summary may focus on different indicators from those outlined in Digital Scotland Performs, it aims to provide a comprehensive overview of Scotland's digital progress to date.

Where possible, comparisons have been made with the UK and European nations and where comparisons over time are made, this will generally cover the period over which the data has been collected.

PARTICIPATION

• The proportion of households with internet access in Scotland has increased from 40 per cent in 2003 Q1 to 76 per cent in 2012 Q4.
• In Scotland, the proportion of adults using the internet for personal use has increased from 62.7 per cent in 2007 to 77 per cent in 2012.

PUBLIC SERVICES

• Among internet users in Scotland, 62 per cent had ever used a Local Authority website for any purpose and 64 per cent had ever used a Government website for any purpose.
• The most commonly stated reason for using a public authority website was to find information.

ECONOMY

• 87 per cent of SMEs in Scotland had broadband in 2012 and 52 per cent had a website.
• 60 per cent among Scottish SMEs used internet to promote goods and services and 34 per cent used internet for selling goods and services.

CONNECTIVITY

• In 2012 NGA broadband was available to 47.6 per cent of all households in Scotland. This compared with 67.9 per cent of all households in the UK.