Barcelona City Council and the BIT Habitat Foundation have presented thereport on the digital gap in the city of Barcelona during 2020. This is a survey that was carried out on 2.542 citizens during the autumn of 2020 and that was used to analyze the digital gap in the city as well as the impact of the pandemic on the use of ICT.
This work is a diagnosis on the level of internet access and the different uses of information and communication technologies (ICT) which aims to measure the level of digitization of citizens and identify present and future needs and opportunities . In addition, the study assesses the evolution of the gap sinceprevious survey carried out in 2016 by MWCapital.
A first conclusion is that the vast majority of Barcelona citizens are connected to the internet (91,9%). The data show how the connection gap has narrowed significantly in Barcelona over the last four years where only 8,1% of households do not have an Internet connection and the majority of these households, 55%, are for people over 74 years old.
On the other hand, and in the current pandemic context, the survey has made it possible to analyze how the confinement caused by the covid-19 crisis has changed behavior in the use of ICT. Broadly speaking, it can be said that the effects of the covid-19 health crisis have impacted all social sectors and have caused a change in the digital behavior of almost all social groups and a diversification of their uses. Not only have the majority of citizens used ICTs more during 2020, but certain online activities that were previously in the minority have become widespread, such as telecommuting, online education and electronic processing. Activities that, together with the need to use ICT for urgent and basic issues during the pandemic, have exacerbated previous inequalities, linked to the type of work, training level and digital skills.
Uses and determining factors
In the last four years, the uses that have grown the most have been training courses, which have tripled (from 13,5 to 48%), medical appointments or consultations, which have doubled (from 35 to 70 %), the completion of procedures with the administration (from 42 to 75%),) and the purchase and sale of goods or services (from 53 to 76%)
It also reflects the most determining factors: age is a factor that conditions access among the older population, but above all the use made of the network and ICT; educational level and work situation influence both the uses and the type of devices used; and income determines the possibility of telecommuting and the resources and skills to pursue online education, among others.
