Current and Accessible
Current, clear, accessible. But also: very broad and very in-depth. All these qualifications apply to three new and related CBS products in the field of digitalization and knowledge economy. The dashboard, publications, and file replace the publication ICT, Knowledge, and Economy that has been produced annually since 2011. Most of the data have been tracked for years within CBS, but we are pleased that we have now found a new form of presentation, says Bart Klijs. He is the project leader and researcher at the Culture, Tourism, and Technology team. This team worked with other teams in 2024 on the improvements.Easier to Add New Data
Klijs explains: There are two major advantages. The first is the improved and clearer presentation. We hope this will increase our reach and target audience. We aim to serve more people – from policymakers in the government to interested Dutch citizens – with the data. The second advantage is that we are now more flexible: we can more easily add new data along the way. Previously, there was one moment each year when all data were published online, after which it was a year of waiting for the next edition.In One Glance
In 2024, many more people aged 75 and older used the internet daily than in 2012: 75 percent instead of 16 percent. Furthermore, in 2024, the number of companies applying artificial intelligence increased significantly. In 2023, it was still 14 percent, a year later it was 23 percent. This type of information is visible at a glance in the Digitalization and Knowledge Economy dashboard. Renske Verweij, a researcher in Policy Statistics at CBS, built the dashboard. She says: It is a website where you can find interactive figures. By interactive, we mean that you as a user can select topics, periods, and groups. For example: how many individuals made online purchases between 2014 and 2024? Or: how many companies had employees working with the internet between 2022 and 2024? And how many students were there in scientific education between 2015 and 2024? This way, you quickly and easily get an overview over the years, so that certain developments stand out earlier. An example is the proportion of employees using the internet at work. This has increased from 34 percent in 2002 to 82 percent in 2024.
Number of Emails and Text Messages
The dashboard, publications, and file Digitalization and Knowledge Economy highlight six themes. The first three concern digitalization: ICT usage among individuals, ICT usage among companies, and ICT & economy. ICT usage among individuals can include the number of people sending emails and text messages, for example via WhatsApp. An example of ICT usage among companies is whether employees are telecommuting. ICT & economy concerns, among other things, the number of ICT employees in the Netherlands.Knowledge Economy
Klijs mentions the three themes related to the knowledge economy. In a knowledge economy, knowledge is important. Knowledge is built up in education, and that is what the theme of knowledge potential is about. How many people obtain a diploma at the vocational level, secondary school, and higher education? Another theme is research & development (R&D), meaning research and development by companies, institutions, higher education, and university medical centers. How much money has been spent on R&D? How many labor hours were involved? The last theme is innovation: how many companies have innovated, for example?Context for the Data
While the dashboard is designed for users who want to see specific data quickly, the publications section of Digitalization and Knowledge Economy is intended for deeper content. Each year, a summary article is written for this, and in-depth publications are offered that often delve into a specific subject, such as cybersecurity and online platforms.Klijs: These are articles written by CBS colleagues about topics that are briefly mentioned in the dashboard. They provide context for the figures. The range is broad; there is also a publication about tracking technical subjects in education. What is the difference between boys and girls here, and does the education of the parents influence subject choice? In the Digitalization and Knowledge Economy file, all publications are collected. It is a website where users can easily find their way to an article about the subject they want to know more about.