Germany’s position in the EU regarding digitization continues to lag behind its peers, according to the latest “Digital Economy and Society Index” (Desi-Index) published by the IT industry association Bitkom. The index indicates that Germany ranks 17th out of the 27 EU member states, marking a decline from the 14th spot held in the previous year. Despite the drop in rank, Germany’s overall score saw a slight increase, rising from 50.1 to 51.1.
Ralf Wintergerst, President of Bitkom, acknowledged that “Germany is making progress in digitalization, but other countries are moving faster.” He pointed to systemic challenges within the German economy, noting that the country is hampered by excessive complexity, painstakingly long planning and approval processes, overwhelming bureaucracy, and a legal framework that even in-house lawyers struggle to comprehend.
The index reveals that Germany is performing significantly below average, particularly when measuring the digitalization of public administration, where it placed 22nd out of 27-a worse result than the previous year. Conversely, the nation achieved solid results in the upper-middle tier for both the quality of its digital infrastructure and the corporate digital transformation. Furthermore, Germany managed to climb four places to 11th in the area of digital competence.
Global leaders in the ranking include Denmark, which achieved 76.4 points, followed by Finland (72.9 points), the Netherlands (72.7 points), Malta (70.3 points), and Luxembourg (69.3 points).
Despite acknowledging that a large federal state like Germany cannot be fully compared to smaller nations such as Luxembourg, Estonia, or Denmark, Wintergerst issued a call for action. He emphasized the need to speed up digital projects across the board-from enabling business startups in 24 hours and accelerating permits for data centers, mobile masts, and factories, to promoting the wide implementation of artificial intelligence within companies.
The Desi-Index aggregates various indicators of digitalization, including digital competencies, 5G coverage, fiber optic availability, the utilization of digital technologies by businesses, and the quality of digital government services. Although the EU Commission used to publish this metric itself until 2022, providing only the individual data points today, Bitkom has been responsible for calculating the corresponding ranking since 2023.
