Tech in Denmark – EU Report on the State of the Digital Decade 2024
In an era where digital transformation shapes the global economic landscape, staying informed about key developments is crucial for businesses, policymakers, and innovators alike.
Dive into the European Commission’s analysis of Denmark's digital evolution to learn the nation’s strengths and challenges.
On 2 July 2024, the European Commission released the "State of the Digital Decade 2024" report. This publication is a key component of the EU's efforts to achieve the 2030 goals outlined in EU´s Digital Decade Policy Programme.
For the first time, the EU countries strategic roadmaps are being evaluated by measuring 4 key areas for the digital transformation:
- Digital infrastructure
- digital skills
- digitalisation of public services
- and digitalisation of businesses
According to the report, Denmark has two main strengths or areas of progress, namely digitalisation of public services & ICT specialists. On the other side are Denmark´s two areas to improve, digitalisation of SMEs & adoption of advanced digital technologies by enterprises.
Digital infrastructure covers Denmark
The report highlights Denmark’s research community within tech, due to its focus on research fields like robotics and Deep Tech centres for the fabrication of nano technologies like quantum technologies, sensors and chips. Over the next couple of years, Denmark continues to invest more in those technologies, due to the fact that they are crucial for Denmark’s digital infrastructure and for the public and private sectors in the future and enabling advanced applications such as AI and cloud technology.
A 100% digital infrastructure is crucial for enabling advanced applications that require large spectrum bandwidth. Denmark's robust digital infrastructure is set to achieve 100% coverage for VHCN and 5G by 2025. Notably, Denmark has the highest percentage of fixed broadband subscriptions with speeds above 1 Gbps in the EU, at 29.3%. In 2023, 5G in the 3.4-3.8 GHz band covered 85,0% of the Danish households, which is above the EU average of 50,6%.
This strong infrastructure means that the majority of Danish enterprises are digital, with 75.3% of Danish SMEs having at least a basic level of digital intensity. To reach 100% digitalisation of SME´s, Denmark has made two initiatives, SME:Digital and SME:Robot, which will help streamline digital process in SMEs and reduce the digitalisation gap between SME´s and large companies.
The European Commission’s recommendation
To maintain Denmark’s high level of digitalisation, the European Commission recommends the following:
- DIGITALISATION OF ENTERPRISES: Focus on supporting and raising smaller enterprises’ awareness of digital solutions to improve their businesses and learn how to better use them.
- AI/CLOUD/DATA ANALYTICS:
- Review the mix of measures to support the adoption of advanced digital technologies by businesses, particularly those targeting the adoption of AI by enterprises.
- Stimulate the adoption of next generation cloud infrastructure and services by companies of all sizes, including by liaising with the Cloud IPCEI Exploitation office and/or the coordinators and the Member States participating in the IPCEI-CIS.
- CYBERSECURITY: Continue to implement the 5G Cybersecurity Toolbox to ensure secure and resilient 5G networks.
- CONNECTIVITY INFRASTRUCTURE: Ensure sufficient access of new players to spectrum for innovative business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) applications and encourage operators to speed up the deployment of 5G stand-alone core networks.
- EDGE NODES: Consider integrating the deployment of more edge nodes at national level, as well as investment programmes, factoring in the innovation that edge nodes will bring in the areas of AI, the Internet of Things (IoT) and networks rollout.
Digital skills
Basic digital skills are essential for adopting newer technologies and there is a globally increasing demand for more ICT specialists. In 2023, 69.6% of the Danish population possessed at least basic digital skills, surpassing the EU average of 55.6%. Additionally, ICT specialists make up 5.9% of the Danish workforce, which is higher than the EU average of 4.8%.
Digital skills are not only essential for the population, but also for the digitalisation of the administration (public services for citizens and businesses, e-ID and access to e-health records). Denmark performs above the EU average in digitalisation of the administration due to decades of digital transformation. Over the past 12 months, 83.9% of the Danish population used e-ID, known as MitID, to access public services. This is significantly higher than the EU average of 36.1%, indicating that Denmark has a highly digitalised public service sector. Especially within e-health is Denmark remarkable and scores 97.9 out of 100 on e-health maturity.
The European Commission’s recommendation
- BASIC DIGITAL SKILLS: Focus on integrating basic digital skills in primary and lower secondary education at national level to ensure there is an equal level of basic digital skills among the Danish population, paying particular attention to the existing urban-rural divide and gender gap.
- ICT SKILLS: Follow up on the plans set out in the new Danish digitalisation strategy to upskill and reskill ICT specialists. Design schemes to improve young people’s interest in ICT, including among women, and retain international students in ICT-related degree programmes to increase enrolment rates.
- E-HEALTH: Make the data type of medical images available to citizens through the online access service.
Take aways from the report
Overall, the report highlights Denmark as a leading digital nation, characterized by its:
- advanced digital public services,
- the high level of digital skills,
- digital tools among its population and businesses,
- research community,
- high-quality research community and a strong focus on R&D,
- improvement of the standardisation, digitalisation and automation of data in accessing climate and environmental footprints.
- high ambitions
- technological leadership and competitiveness
To maintain its status as a digital leader, Denmark must continue to invest further in its digital future by continuing to develop a coherent approach to twinning the digital and green transitions, which also include supporting relevant pilot projects. First, continue to promote energy and material efficiency of digital infrastructures, in particular data centres. And secondly, support the development and deployment of digital solutions that reduce the carbon footprint in other sectors, such as energy, transport, buildings, and agriculture, including the uptake of such solutions by SMEs.
Furthermore, Denmark must build on existing measures to monitor and quantify the emission reductions of the deployed digital solutions in line with the relevant EU guidance and with the support of the methodology developed by the European Green Digital Coalition, in view of future policy development as well as of attracting relevant financing. Where possible, Denmark should take the lead in this area by promoting national tools and methodologies at EU level.
Denmarks position in the Digital Decade KPI
