Digital divide across the European Union Frederico Cruz-Jesus *, Tiago Oliveira, Fernando Bacao ISEGI, Universidade Nova de Lisboa 1070-312 Lisbon, Portugal 1. Introduction The attention given by leaders from all over the world to the concept of information society and the potential for a digital divide has risen significantly in recent years. At the World Summit on the information society, it was declared that the global challenge for the new millennium is to build a society ‘‘where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life’’ [1,2]. The European Union (EU) has just released the Europe 2020 Strategy, which seeks to lead to ‘‘a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth for European Economy’’ [3] and ‘‘to exit the crisis and prepare the EU economy for the challenges of the next decade’’ [4]. This economic growth will be accomplished by (among other things) developing a (digital) economy based on knowledge and innova- tion [3]. The Digital Agenda for Europe is included in the Europe 2020 Strategy as one of the seven strategy flagships. It aims to define the central role that the use of information and communi- cation technologies (ICT) must play if Europe wishes to realize its ambitions for 2020 [4]. The European Commission has, recently, also earmarked 1 billion Euros extra to ‘‘help rural areas get online, bring new jobs and help businesses grow’’ [5]. It is predicted that the ICTs ‘‘will help create around 1 million jobs in Europe and a broadband-related growth of economic activity of 850 billion Euros between 2006 and 2015’’ [5]. Also during the period between the year 2000 and 2006, it is estimated that the European structural funds spent 5.5 billion Euros on information society boosting programmes [6]. Therefore, considering the importance of the digital development to the EU, expressed by these measures, digital inequalities must be detected and corrected in order to avoid jeopardizing the objectives of the Europe 2020. Thus it has become fundamental to know what the current situation is regarding the digital divide within the whole EU. The best way to assess this is by studying the national realities regarding the multiple dimensions of the digital development, for a posterior comparison of each country with the rest of the European ones. Keeping this goal in mind, although several authors have focused on understanding and measuring the digital divide, there is a lack of studies capable of taking a wide snapshot of the EU reality with a wide set of relevant and updated indicators. Considering the importance that the European Commission gives to a homogeneous digital development amongst all of its members, the first step to take toward this development is to assess the current situation within the Union. The current research helps to do this and sheds light on the issue in order that efficient policies may be deployed. We therefore intend to provide a complete and updated analysis of digital asymmetries within the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU-27), with data pertaining to the year 2010, and answer the following questions: (1) What are the most significant latent dimensions of the European digital divide, Information & Management 49 (2012) 278–291 A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 19 November 2011 Received in revised form 10 August 2012 Accepted 18 September 2012 Available online 5 October 2012 Keywords: Digital divide Digital development ICT Information society Electronic services European Union Factor analysis and cluster analysis A B S T R A C T Our research analyses the digital divide within the European Union 27 between the years of 2008 and 2010. To accomplish this we use multivariate statistical methods, more specifically factor and cluster analysis, to address the European digital disparities. Our results lead to an identification of two latent dimensions and five groups of countries. We conclude that a digital gap does, in fact, exist within the European Union. The process of European integration and the economic wealth emerge as explanatory factors for this divide. On the other hand, the educational attendance is not proven to be significant, as one would expect. ß 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: Rua Doutor Rafael Duque n89 68dto, 1500-249 Lisboa, Portugal. Tel.: +351 914 162 677. E-mail addresses: frederico.mcruz@gmail.com (F. Cruz-Jesus), toliveira@isegi.unl.pt (T. Oliveira), bacao@isegi.unl.pt (F. Bacao). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Information & Management jo u rn al h om ep ag e: ww w.els evier.c o m/lo c ate/im 0378-7206/$ – see front matter ß 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2012.09.003