On 26 March 2012, the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) released statistical data on computer use and skills reported among individuals in the 27 European Member States and on the number of European university graduates in computing.
The data shows that in 2011, more than three quarters of those aged 16 and 74 years used a computer, rising to 96 percent among people aged between 16 and 24 years.
Sweden has the highest percentage of users, with 96 percent, and Romania the lowest percentage, with 50 percent. In Portugal, 64 percent of individuals between 16 and 74 years used a computer. The figure is 98 percent among people aged 16 to 24 years.
In Europe, the number of computing graduates made up 3.4 percent of all university graduates in 2009, falling from 4.0 percent. The largest declines were reported in Portugal, where the proportion of computing graduates fell from 5.1 to 1.7 percent, and in the United Kingdom, falling from 5.9 to 4 percent. However, and despite the downward trend, Malta had the highest percentage of computing graduates, increasing from 1.9 percent in 2005 to 5.6 in 2009.
Eurostat released this data on the occasion of e-Skills Week 2012, held from 26 to 30 March 2012. European e-Skills week 2012 is a European campaign focused on raising the interest of young people in ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) as well as showing people how to get jobs and e-skills for life in the digital age.
Further information:
- Computer skills in the EU27 in figures http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=STAT/12/47&format=HTML&aged=0&language=en&guiLanguage=en
- e-Skills Week 2012 http://eskills-week.ec.europa.eu/web/guest;jsessionid=EE9D98B67C281E606268E00D1781CF6C
