Ireland has come 23rd in a global index of information society preparedness compiled by IDC, which evaluates issues such as use of IT in each country, IT spending, telecoms and broadband infrastructure, e-commerce spending and social factors such as education, civil liberties and government corruption.
IDC’s Information Society Index was created in the Nineties as the world’s first measure of the ability of 53 nations to participate in the information revolution. The surveys measures nations against 15 key variables.
According to this year’s IT ranking worldwide, Ireland came in at 23rd position – behind many of our nearest European neighbours, such as the UK (10th), Spain (21st), Belgium (16th), Germany (15th), Austria (14th), Norway (9th), the Netherlands (6th), Sweden (2nd) and Denmark (1st).
In an overall synopsis of the country’s position, IDC charted four key variables such as computing (analysis of each country’s usage of IT), telecoms (broadband, wireless services and network infrastructure), internet (e-commerce spending, home and mobile net users and impact of the net) and social factors (education, civil liberties).
In terms of computing Ireland ranked 21st in the world, compared with the UK (8th), Sweden (10th) and Denmark (3rd).
Ireland came in at 31st place in the world in terms of telecoms infrastructure, compared with the UK (21st), Denmark (9th) and Sweden (7th).
In terms of the full impact of the internet, Ireland came in at 22nd position, compared with the UK in 12th, Sweden in 1st and Norway in 3rd.
Finally, in terms of social factors Ireland ranked 15th in the world, compared with the UK in 10th position, Norway in 4th position and Sweden in 3rd position and Finland in No 1 position.
By John Kennedy
