In 2021, there were 2.79 million employed persons with an ICT education, 3.3% more than in 2020. Men represented 84.1% (2.35 million) of the EU's total workforce with an ICT educational background, an increase of 1.3% from the previous year (2.20 million in 2020), while the number of women in employment with an ICT education declined. In 2021, women represented 15.9% (442 800) of the ICT workforce compared with 17.2% (463 800) in 2020.
Looking at the EU Member States, Czechia (92.6%), Slovenia (90.8%), France (89.7%), Belgium (89.2%) and Poland (89.1%) had the highest shares of men in the total number of employed persons with an ICT education.
Women accounted for more than a quarter of employed persons with an ICT education in Bulgaria (36.6%), Greece (29.4%), Denmark (28.0%), Romania (27.2%) and Cyprus (26.9%).
Source dataset: isoc_ski_itsex
Majority of ICT-educated persons in employment are young
In the EU, more than two-thirds (67.5%) of employed persons with an ICT education were between 15 and 34 years old in 2021, and 32.5% were between 35 and 74 years old.
Source dataset: isoc_ski_itage
Young people aged 15 to 34 made up the majority of ICT-educated persons in employment in almost all EU Member States, with the highest shares in Slovakia (82.4%), Croatia (82.2%), Romania (78.8%), Portugal (77.7%) and Czechia (76.9%), Finland being the exception with 49.5%.
The highest shares of 35- to 74-years-old with an ICT education in the EU workforce was in Finland, where the share was almost 50/50 (50.5% for 35-74 years old), followed by Luxembourg (45.2%), Spain (40.5%), Sweden (39.7%) and Austria (39.5%).
For more information:
- Statistics Explained article on ICT education
- Database on digital economy and society
- Dedicated section on digital economy and society
Methodological notes:
- ICT-educated persons have achieved formal qualifications at upper secondary level or at tertiary level within the fields of: computer use, database and network design and administration, software and applications development and analysis, and inter-disciplinary programmes and qualifications involving Information and Communication Technologies.
- For all EU-countries there is a break-in time series for employed persons with an ICT education by sex and age (see LFS new methodology from 2021 onwards).
- For Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, France, Malta and Slovenia there is low reliability for the female data provided by the Member States.
- For Latvia, Norway and Slovakia data on women in employment with an ICT education background are not available because their reliability level does not reach the publication thresholds.
- For Slovakia and Latvia data for the older age class (34-75 years) are not available because their reliability level does not reach the publication thresholds.
- For employed persons with an ICT education in 2021, definitions differ for Spain and France, please see LFS metadata for more details.
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