Assessing the Role of Age, Education, Gender and Income on the Digital Divide: Evidence for the European Union

摘要

This paper assesses the digital divide between and within the 28 member-states of the European Union. The analysis comprised four socio-demographic contexts: age, education, gender, and income. Because of the digital divide's complexity, a multivariate approach was applied - factor analysis with oblique rotation, which resulted in two distinct dimensions: e-Services and Social Networks. To test the significant differences of European Union positioning and European Union disparities, Multivariate Analysis of Variance and Squared Rank Test were computed. Findings show that e-Services adoption is influenced primarily by the education level of individuals, while Social Networks adoption is more affected by individuals' age.