Commission publishes 2024 State of the Digital Decade Report

On 2 July 2024, the Commission published the second annual report on the State of the Digital Decade, which evaluates the progress – at both the EU and national levels – towards realising the objectives and targets set by the Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030.

It explores the key drivers and challenges to achieve the EU’s digital transformation, including a new geopolitical paradigm, fostering competitiveness in a complex economic context, entering a new age shaped by generative AI, and keeping people and societies engaged in an increasingly hybrid context.

State of the Digital Decade 2024

This year’s report is a call for strengthened action to Member States to be more ambitious, as achieving the Digital Decade goals in digital infrastructure, businesses, skills and public services is critical for the EU’s future economic prosperity and societal cohesion. In this context, the Commission also updated country-specific and cross-cutting recommendations for every EU Member State to address the identified gaps.

The report shows that significant work remains to be done to reach the 2030 targets on digital skills: only 55.6% of EU’s population have at least basic digital skills and, at the current pace, the number of ICT specialists will reach just 12 million by 2030 – well below the EUR 20 million target. Amid an aging population, and increasingly technology-driven society and growing competition for digitally skilled talent, the report calls for a more coherent and strategic framework of investment, governance, and capacity-building for effective and inclusive digital skills and talent development.

Member States should prioritise investment in digital education and skills in line with the Council Recommendation on improving the provision of digital skills and competences in education and training, including targeted policies for groups most in need. In particular, they should support early exposure of young people, particularly girls, to STEM, promote VET and lifelong learning in the domain of ICT, increase the academic offer in advanced digital skills, facilitate collaboration among higher education institutions, boost industry integration and foster diversity and inclusion, particularly of women.

Further information

More information on the 2024 State of the Digital Decade package can be found on the official webpage of the European Commission.

See also the Annexes to the publication with information on specific focus areas: Communication, Annex I – Competitiveness and sovereignty, people, smart greening, policy coherence and synergies, and check out the notes of Commission staff directly in the Staff Working Document (SWD).