Measuring Digital Skills across the EU: Digital Skills Indicator 2.0

This short technical report presents the updated methodology for the measurement of digital skills using the Digital Skills Indicator (DSI). The DSI was first piloted in 2014 and today, it is used to monitor the ambitious policy target of reaching a minimum of 80% of the EU population with at least basic digital skills by 2030. The report presents the updated Digital Skills Indicator (DSI 2.0). It first describes the Digital Competence Framework, which is used as an underlying theoretical framework, and then present results of the empirical validation of the DSI 2.0. The analysis confirms the high overall psychometric quality of the items that comprise DSI 2.0. The analysis also provides an empirical validation of DSI’s underpinning conceptual framework, DigComp 2.0. Results generally support the robustness of cross-country comparisons on the indicator. The revised indicator is the result of work carried out in 2019-2022 within Eurostat’s Information Society Working Group in order to modernise the indicator by adapting it to the revised conceptual framework (DigComp 2.0) as well as to keep it up with technological progress since the first version was published in 2015. The DSI is used for the purpose of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI). DESI is an annual report published by the European Commission that monitors the progress of EU Member States on their digital development.