The corona crisis and the associated closure of the offices has not caused the use of e-government to skyrocket. According to a study, only 32 percent used digital government services at least once a week in the past year. This means that the proportion has remained the same compared to 2018, but the frequency of use has increased slightly by four percent. Even in an international comparison, Austrians rarely use digital services.
The data comes from the Digital Government Citizenship Survey of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Every two years, BCG determines how much people use digital administrative services in an international comparison and how satisfied they are with them. For the current survey, 24,500 citizens from 36 countries were interviewed, 500 of them in Austria.
Top countries India, Saudi Arabia and Denmark
A comparison with other countries shows that the Austrians, at 32 percent, are not world champions when it comes to using digital government services: In the top 3 countries of India, Saudi Arabia and Denmark, the rate is between 62 and 75 percent. The international average is 47 percent. In addition, the proportion of citizens who use digital government services more than once a week in the top 10 countries is also at a considerably higher level.
Satisfaction with the e-government services on offer also leaves a lot to be desired in Austria. More than every second respondent (58 percent) said they were satisfied with the digital administration services. That is at least four percent more than in 2018. The average of the industrialized countries examined, however, is also significantly higher at 64 percent. Austria ranks 25th in the ranking of the 36 nations examined.
After all, 44 percent of Austrians would be willing to pass on personal anonymized data if the community would benefit from it. In this case, 15 percent would even provide non-anonymized data. (apa)