Access to and Use of Information Technologies

This chapter presents the latest international comparisons based on official surveys of ICT diffusion in households, among individuals and in businesses that were recently developed by national statistical offices under the aegis of the OECD. To help to explain differences in the intensity of use of new technologies across countries, this chapter also relies on indicators of barriers to the use of information technology. Answers on perceived barriers and on their evaluation are inevitably qualitative in nature and need to be used with caution in international comparisons. Nevertheless, they can be of great interest to policy makers. For example, indicators of barriers can help for monitoring issues of digital divide, point to potential bottlenecks related to the technology or lack of appropriate skills and help address concerns about security and logistics.