Description (short summary):
The report monitors the evolution of the Information Society (IS) in Spain, in a European context, by developing indicators, benchmarking the performance of Spanish regions and analysing sectoral markets. It focuses on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by the public, businesses and administrations. It moreover develops a comparative index of the IS between the European countries, thus highlighting the strengths and the weaknesses of the IS in Spain. eEspaña 2010 is the tenth edition of a report which constitutes a reference in the country.

During the reference period Spain has moved up one position in the European ranking which measures the development of Information Society, and it is now in line with the European Union average in technological convergence.

The main findings of the report are as follows:

• The IeE10 indicator shows that Spain holds the fifteenth position, keeping up with the leading countries.
• Spain only met one of the objectives of the Lisbon Agenda for the year 2010. However these objectives have been difficult to achieve, both for Spain and for most of the European countries.
• For the first time, in 2009, the volume of business of the Spanish telecommunications services and the income of the ICT macro sector have dropped.
• Spain holds the leading position in Europe regarding fixed broadband in companies with more than 10 employees, with 98% of companies connected to the Internet. It also leads (with Sweden) the percentage of individuals using an UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) mobile phone to connect to the Internet.
• The Spanish Internet user is an intense downloader / viewer of web content and a heavy user of social networks, above the EU average.
• eGovernment: Spain exceeds the average of the top 30 countries in the eGovernment Development Index generated by the United Nations. It has moved up 11 slots to reach the ninth position in the world. This improvement in the development of eGovernment services is also reflected in the eParticipation Index, in which Spain is the first European country and the third in the world. Despite this great progress, Spain, has not made progress in the demand for these services.

In addition to the usual contents, eEspaña 2010 includes an innovative study of the implementation in the Autonomous Communities of Law 11/2007 on Citizens' Electronic Access to Public Services. This Law states that the Spanish Administration has to make access available for citizens to interact electronically before 31 December 2009. Nevertheless individual regions are bound by funding constraints. The Autonomous Communities have a ratio of 70 % of compliance with the Law, according to the methodology used in the study.

Madrid leads the three Indexes regarding Autonomous Communities included in the report: the convergence Index of the Information Society, the fourth study on the availability of online services for administrations (shared leadership with Asturias) and the analysis percentage of implementation degree of the aforementioned Law 11/2007.

Number of pages: 276

Related ePractice publications:
ES: eEspaña 2009 - Annual report on the development of the Information Society in Spain