Internet Services

Internet usage

At 66% of the population in 2011, Slovenia's rate of regular internet use (at least once a week) is slightly below the EU average (69%). This figure is basically unchanged since a year earlier (- 1 p.p.). Slovenia has a long way to go before it can count itself among the leaders where rates are around 90%. 29% of the population has still never used the internet, 5 p.p. above the rate for the EU of 24%. Furthermore, no progress was made in reducing this figure between 2010 and 2011. With regards to disadvantaged people, the rate was 36%, 15 percentage points below the EU average of 51%. 24% of the population access the internet every day, showing that the majority of users (62%; less than the EU average) are so-called frequent users. In contrast to regular users, frequency of use has increased somewhat in the last year, with an additional 3 percentage point's increase in frequent users between 2010 and 2011. This shows that while no progress has been made in getting more citizens online, some existing users are increasing their frequency of internet use.

In Slovenia, the most popular activities online are reading/downloading online newspapers/news (32%, +10 p.p. over 2010), seeking health information (29%, +10 p.p.) and finding information about goods and services (27%, up 1 p.p.). Despite their somewhat below average rate of regular internet use, Slovenian citizens are above average users of a number of internet services, including selling goods and services online (30%, +13 p.p. compared to the EU average), reading/downloading online newspapers/news (+11 p.p. compared to EU average), seeking health information (+9 p.p. compared to EU average) and looking for information about education, training or course offers (33%, +4 p.p. compared to EU average).

Digital Competence/ICT skills

65% of citizens in Slovenia have some level of computer skills. 69% have internet skills. Again these rates are only slightly lower than the averages for the EU of 67% and 73%, respectively. Looking at the distribution of computer skills between high, medium and low shows that the Slovenian population has a skills- set that is more heavily skewed towards high levels: 31% have high, 23% medium and 11% low computer skills, compared to 27%, 25% and 14% respectively, for the EU. A similar pattern can also be seen for internet skills. The rate of highly skilled at 16% is 5 p.p. above the EU average (11%), while the rates of medium (31%) and low (23%) skilled are lower (by 1 and 7 p.p., respectively).

New data on internet use and confidence allow us to assess not only the level of operational ICT skills but also gives us an idea of how competent users are. In particular, while the proportion of citizens who can use the internet creatively is similar to that of the EU average, the proportion who use it responsibly is slightly lower: for example 11% (same as the EU average) have created a web page and 21% (2 p.p. lower than the EU average) have modified security settings. Rates of citizens' confidence in their skills are also generally lower, except for those related to finding a job: while 59% (-7 p.p.) of the citizens in Slovenia are confident their skills are sufficient to communicate with relatives, friends, and colleagues over the internet, 47% (-4 p.p.) are confident they are sufficient if they were to look for a job or change job within a year.

Looking more specifically at only those individuals in the active labour market (i.e. individuals either in employment, self-employment or actively looking for a job) shows that 59% are confident their IT skills are sufficient if they were to look for a job or change job within a year. This compares to a figure for the EU average of 53%.

eCommerce

The take-up of e-Commerce in Slovenia is relatively low, with only 31% of citizens in 2011 having purchased online within the previous 12 months compared to 43% on average in the EU; although there has been some increase since 2010 (+4 p.p.). As with the majority of other EU countries, most citizens purchase from national sellers: 26% of citizens made purchases in the previous 12 months from national sellers in 2011; 11% made purchases from other EU countries. The EU average for purchases from national sellers is 39% compared to 10% for non-national sellers.

E-Commerce diffusion among Slovenian enterprises is slightly below the EU average: 11% of Slovenian businesses and SMEs, engaged in e-Commerce sales in 2011, while the EU average for all enterprises and SMEs was, respectively, 13% and 12%. On the other hand, the proportion of enterprises making electronic sales to other EU Member States in 2011 is in line with the EU average. In fact, 6% of Slovenian companies and 5% of SMEs made cross-border sales in 2011 (EU average: 6% for all enterprises and for SMEs). The proportion of Slovenian enterprises purchasing online increased from 16% in 2010 to 18% in 2011, while the EU average decreased from 27% in 2010 to 19% in 2011. The proportion of enterprises' turnover achieved through e-Commerce in 2011 (9%, down 1 p.p. over 2010) was below the EU average of 14%.

eGovernment

For more information about eGovernment in Slovenia click here.