Internet
Digital ranking: Hamburg ahead of Berlin and Bavaria
In the area of digital infrastructure, Hamburg is ahead of Berlin and Bavaria. photo
© Sina Schuldt/dpa
How digital are the 16 federal states? A new country index from the industry association Bitkom is intended to answer this question. The association wants to use the ranking to compare progress and deficits.
Hamburg has taken part in a digital ranking by the industry association Bitkom Berlin and Bavaria took the lead. The Hanseatic city was particularly able to impress with top marks for its digital infrastructure and achieved 73.5 out of 100 possible points across all areas. In the study, Berlin scored particularly highly in the area of digital economy and achieved a total of 71.5 points. Bayern scored 66.9 points. The lowest index values were achieved in Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
Four areas were examined: “digital economy”, “digital infrastructure”, “governance & digital administration” and “digital society”. Within these categories, 26 indicators were examined, such as 5G expansion, fiber optic coverage or the charging infrastructure for electric cars in the infrastructure category. In the “digital society” category, the number of compulsory computer science hours in schools, the use of digital government services and the population’s attitude towards digitalization were evaluated. More than 5,600 people were surveyed for this purpose. The survey results provided representative results for all federal states.
Frontrunner Hamburg not only scored a lot of points with good fiber optic expansion and comprehensive 5G coverage, but also with a digital strategy. In this way, measurable digital goals would be defined in the Hanseatic city for the areas of administration, infrastructure, education and business. According to the index, the Hanseatic city has some catching up to do when it comes to digital society, where it only achieved 11th place. There is a lack of compulsory lessons for computer science in all types of schools, as is the case in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saarland and Saxony.
Start-up capital Berlin
Berlin scores particularly well as a start-up capital. Here, the share of companies in the information and communications technology sector in the overall economy is comparatively high at 4.6 percent. The national average is 2.9 percent. The proportion of IT specialists is also particularly high in Berlin at 4.3 percent. The values for 5G mobile communications are also at the top. The Bitkom Index, on the other hand, sees a need to catch up in the expansion of fiber optics and the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
Bavaria in third place collected points, among other things, through its own digital ministry. The Free State also impressed with digital administration: Bavaria has already implemented 43 percent of the digital administrative services of the Online Access Act, significantly better than the state average (35 percent). On the positive side, Bitkom also noted the high number of computer science degrees at Bavarian universities. Bitkom, on the other hand, sees a need to catch up when it comes to fiber optic expansion.
Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst said that the country index would make the 16 countries comparable in terms of digitalization. “There are enormous differences between the digitally leading countries and the laggards.” He pointed out that even beyond the city states and the populous states such as Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia, small federal states were also among the pioneers in individual categories: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was in first place in the digital society category. Schleswig-Holstein takes second place, which is excellent for a large country, when it comes to expanding its digital infrastructure.