An Econometric Analysis of the Sociodemographic Topology of the Digital Divide in Europe

Introducing an econometric approach to quantify the digital divide, this article presents a new method to facilitate crossnational and in-depth sectional analyses of the digital divide within a consistent framework. It examines the sociodemographic topology of the digital divide in an extensive crossnational analysis covering six sociodemographic factors and twenty-five countries. The findings contradict in part the conclusions of previous research. Although there are differences between the social groups, not all of the tested segmentation factors mark major fault lines of the digital divide. The notions of a gender gap, an income divide, and a divide between urban and rural areas are rejected because between-group disparity proves to be only minor in comparison to overall inequality. However, education, age, and main vocational activity do indeed mark digital boundaries in many of the observed countries.