Press Release 15/11/2019

Survey on the Information Society in Administration. ESI-Administration. 2019

In 2019, 93.0% of companies in the Basque Country used e-administration services

Almost all public administrations in the Basque Country have a website

93.0% of Basque companies carried out electronic procedures with the Public Administration in 2019, according to Eustat data. These procedures can either be carried out directly, with third parties (consultancies etc.) or by a combination of the two. 48.9% of companies performed some kind of procedure directly, 8 percentage points more than in 2017, whilst 73.4% did so through third parties, 4.5 percentage points more than two years ago.

In the case of companies with 10 or more employees, electronic processing reached 95.7% of establishments. Seeing as these companies have more resources at their disposal due to their greater size, they predominantly carry out procedures directly (80.6%), whereas the percentage of companies that carry out procedures through third parties is lower at 55.8%.

Regarding the Administration with which the Basque companies carry out these electronic procedures, two notable examples are the Provincial Councils (84.1%) and the Central Administration (72.3%). These percentages are largely explained by the competencies of these bodies in relation to the main taxes. Next are the Basque Government (54.2%) followed by local bodies (29.7%) and the European Union and others (9.8%).

Once again these percentages are higher if we only take into account companies with 10 or more employees. Standing out here, firstly is the Central Administration, with 86.4% of companies of this size interacting with it electronically, followed by the Provincial Councils, 85.1%. Next is the Basque Government (76.3%), local bodies (48.0%) and finally, the European Union and others (21.9%).

Almost all public administrations in the Basque Country have a website

In 2019 97.5% of public administration establishments have their own website or the entity to which they belong. Compared to two years ago, in 2017, this figure has increased by almost 5 percentage points (92.6% in 2017). In the case of establishments with 10 or more employees this proportion is greater still, 98.8%.

In 2019, almost all Public Administration establishments in the Basque Country have basic ICT equipment. In addition to a website, 99.8% of public establishments have a computer, and 99.6% have email and internet access. As for mobile phones, they are the least widespread item of ICT equipment, yet 82.3% of public establishments have them.

Compared to the business sector, the usage rates of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) are higher in public administration establishments. In the case of website availability the difference is more than 40 percentage points in favour of the administration (54.6% in the business sector). However, use of mobile telephones is more frequent in the business sector (93.4%) than in the public administration sector (82.3%).

The proportion of public employees that use ICT equipment in 2019 is also at a very high level: 90.5% of public staff use computers, 92.7% have email and 87.5% have internet access. In the business sector, usage rates amongst staff are 71.2%, 66.9% and 66.7% respectively.

It should be pointed out that these high percentages, in both equipment and use by personnel, occur regardless of the employment strata to which they belong. Therefore, the size of the Public Administration establishments has practically no influence.

In addition, almost all establishments (99.2%) implement some form of computer security measure, particularly using up-to-date software (97.5%), as well as installing secure passwords (96.9%).

With regard to the means of internet access in establishments that have an internet connection, all of them (99.9%) access the internet via fixed connections and 73.7% also have some kind of mobile connection. Standing out among the former are fibre optic connections (Cable, FTTH...), with 88.0%, which in the space of only two years have experienced an increase of 9 percentage points (78.9% in 2017). In the case of mobile connections, broadband connection mobile telephones are the most widely used, available for 70.9% of establishments, also with an increase of more than 9 percentage points since 2017.

The Public Administration in the Basque Country places great importance on having an Internet presence via a website, as can be seen from the high percentage (97.5%) of establishments that have one, reaching 98.8% in establishments with 10 or more employees. In the business sector, the percentage is just 54.6% for all establishments as a whole, but much higher, 92.3%, for companies with 10 or more employees.

These websites provide general information on the institution (in 100% of cases), Catalogues of products or price lists (60.7%); Links to social media profiles (59.4%); or Information on job offers (57.7%), amongst other options.

Regarding languages that they can be accessed in, Basque and Spanish particularly stand out, available in 99.0% and 98.7% of websites, respectively, whereas 35.9% of websites can be accessed in English and 17.4% in other languages. A similar trend can be observed in the business sector, except in the case of the Basque language which is only present in 42% of websites of business establishments.

Free software is present in 64.1% of public establishments of the Basque Country

64.1% of public establishments have free software in 2019, such as Internet browsers, office programs, free or open operating systems (Linux...), etc. In those with 10 or more employees this percentage increases to 69.8%.

For its part, the percentage of public establishments that participate in e-commerce stood at 21.3% in December 2018.

For further information:

Euskal Estatistika-Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastian, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service:servicioprensa@eustat.esTel: 945 01 75 62