How's Life in the Digital Age?

How’s life in the digital age in Iceland?

Overall, Iceland is a country that benefits highly from the opportunities provided by the internet while having only average exposure to the risks. Iceland ranks third among OECD countries in Internet access and first in Internet use. The country ranks first in the use of online social networking sites, and it ranks second in the expression of political opinions online, the selling of goods and services using the Internet, and the use of e-government services. Because of high levels of Internet access, the associated life satisfaction gains are very high compared to other countries. Despite the high use of internet in Iceland, the share of children using the Internet more than 6 hours on a weekend day is lower than the OECD average and the share of children experiencing cyberbullying in Iceland is among the lowest in the OECD. However, people in Iceland do sometimes feel limited by their ICT skills, with almost 30% of the teachers reporting a high need to develop ICT skills for teaching, and 8.4% of the population report lacking skills to access e-government services.

Figure 4.14. The digital well-being wheel in Iceland

Note: This wheel depicts Iceland’s relative performance in terms of key opportunities and risks in the context of the digital transformation. The centre of the wheel corresponds to the lowest outcome observed across all OECD countries, while the outer circle corresponds to the highest outcome. For opportunities (in dark blue) longer bars indicate better outcomes, whereas for risks (in yellow), longer bars indicate worse outcomes. If data are missing for any given indicator, the relevant segment of the circle is shaded in white.

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