Digital content creation skills among girls in the EU

In 2023, girls aged 16-19 in the EU showed higher levels of digital content creation skills than the general population.

The majority of girls copied or moved files between folders, devices or on the cloud (78.6% of all girls aged 16-19), used word processing software (73.4%), created files integrating text, pictures, tables, charts, animations or sound (67.7%) or edited photos, video or audio files (60.8%) in the 3 months before the 2023 survey. Additionally, 47.3% of girls used a spreadsheet software and 22.4% used advanced features of this software to organise, analyse, structure or modify data. 1 in 10 girls (9.9%) wrote code in a programming language.

Source dataset: isoc_sk_cskl_i2

In all these activities, girls surpass the shares of the general population, with differences ranging from 28.5 percentage points for creating files integrating different elements to 1.0 pp for advanced spreadsheet use. 

Among the listed activities, there were 4 in which girls participated at higher rates than their male peers: photo, video or audio editing, the use of word processing software, creation of files integrating different elements and copying or moving files between folders, devices or on the cloud. 

The share of girls who code nearly half that of boys

The share of young people aged 16 to 19 in the EU who had written code in a programming language in the 3 months before the survey was 15.1%. While 9.9% girls coded, the share of boys coding was nearly double at 19.7%.

This gender gap was observed in 24 out of 26 EU countries with available data. The largest differences were recorded in Austria (26.5 percentage points), Croatia (19.6 pp) and Belgium (18.2 pp). 

In Lithuania and Greece, the share of girls who engaged in coding was slightly higher than that of boys, with a difference of 3.7 pp and 2.8 pp, respectively.

Source dataset: isoc_sk_cskl_i2

This article marks the International Day of Girls in ICT, celebrated on 24 April under the theme ‘Girls in ICT for inclusive digital transformation’.