Digital Economy and Societal Index

The Digital Economy and Societal Index (DESI) is a composite index developed within DG CNECT.

It brings together a set of relevant indicators on Europe’s current digital policy mix.

Structure
At high level the DESI addresses the five principal policy areas of concern for a digital economy and society:
 * 1)   Connectivity
 * 2)    Human Capital
 * 3)    Use of Internet
 * 4)    Integration of Digital Technology
 * 5)    Digital Public Services

Purpose
The DESI is a standalone tool that can be used for various purposes:


 * In the context of the Digital Agenda Scoreboard, it can be used to assess the relative performance of Member States and their readiness to embrace digital.
 * In the scope of the European Semester, it is the main analytical tool for monitoring Member States’ progress.
 * It could provide analytical support for the roll-out of the DSM package.
 * It can be used for communication activities as well as for the Going Local exercise.

The index will allow four main types of analysis:


 * 1)  General performance assessment: to obtain a general characterisation of the performance of individual Member States by observing their overall index score and the scores of the main index dimensions.
 * 2)  Zooming-in: to pinpoint the areas where Member State performance could be improved by analysing the scores of the index’s sub-dimensions and individual indicators.
 * 3) Follow-up: to assess whether there is progress over time.
 * 4) Comparative analysis: to cluster Member States according to their index scores, which allows comparisons between Member States in similar stages of digital development so as to flag the need for improvement in relevant policy areas.

Further Information
http://connected.cnect.cec.eu.int/docs/DOC-42707 European Semester

To facilitate the use of the DESI in the context of the European Semester, an online exploration tool was created and made available in the following location (http://desi.shinyapps.io/DESI).

The tool allows drilling-down through the main dimensions of the index, all the way to individual indicators. For the purpose of country monitoring, the "Country" tab presents an overview of the performance of each Member State across all the dimensions and indicators included in the DESI.