78% of Cypriot youths have basic or above basic digital skills

At 78%, the digital skills of Cypriot youngsters is marginally below the EU 27 average of 80%, according to figures released by Eurostat on Wednesday to mark World Youth Skills Day.

Eurostat noted that over recent months, many young people (aged 16-24) have had to follow online classes, as lockdown measures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have prevented their schools, universities or other vocational and training institutions from running face-to-face teaching.

Given these circumstances, one might wonder, do young people have the necessary digital skills to access these services online?

In 2019, four in five young people (80%) aged 16 to 24 in the EU had basic or above basic digital skills. This was 24 percentage points (pp) higher than the share of individuals aged 16 to 74 (56%).

Among EU Member States, Croatia had the highest share of individuals aged 16 to 24 with basic or above basic overall digital skills (97%), followed by Estonia, Lithuania and the Netherlands (all three 93%) as well as Greece (92%).

By contrast, the lowest shares were observed in Romania (56%), Bulgaria (58%), Italy (65%), Hungary (68%), Latvia and Luxembourg (both 75%).

For more information: Eurostat has published 2019 data for the Community survey on ICT usage in European households and enterprises; the full data set from the survey is available here.