Digital inclusion resources, statistics and reports

Digital inclusion statistics

UK Consumer Digital Index 2021
Lloyds Bank, 2021
Over the last six years the Consumer Digital Index has used the behavioural data of 1 million people and interviewed over 16,000 consumers. This has created the UK’s largest measure of digital capability and financial behaviours.

The report also documents how the digital landscape has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Predictive modelling indicates five years progress has been made in just one year.

There are 1.5 million more people online, meaning 5% of the population remain digitally excluded, locked out during lockdown. The report also explores how the pandemic has lead to consumers re-evaluating their financial priorities.

Exploring the UK’s digital divide
ONS, 2019
This includes:

• the scale of digital exclusion in the UK
• those who aren’t currently using the internet
• how digital skills vary for different groups of the population
• some of the barriers to digital inclusion

Internet access – households and individuals, Great Britain: 2020
ONS, 2020
Internet access in Great Britain, including:

• how many people have the internet
• how they access it
• what they use it for
• online shopping

Defining and mapping digital inclusion
Leeds City Council
Our guide explains:

• the data we use in Leeds
• how we got started
• how we’ve refined our approach over time

Digital inclusion reports

Building the future we need
techUK, 2020
Read techUK’s eight reports from the ‘Building the Future We Need ‘campaign. They explore ‘Strengthening Local Digital Capital’ across:

• Scotland
• Northern Ireland
• Wales
• the North East
• the North West
• the West Midlands
• Yorkshire and Humberside

Digital Motivation: Exploring the reasons people are offline
Good Things Foundation, 2019
What are the specific reasons people have for not engaging with the internet? How do these specific reasons vary by demographic (for example unemployment, low skills, age). Which reasons are most important for different groups? To what extent are the reasons people give for being offline ‘masking’ other/deeper reasons or issues, including the role of proxy users?

Digital inclusion evidence review
Age UK, 2018
Age UK’s review of the evidence surrounding digital exclusion of older people.

Online Nation, 2020 Report
Ofcom, 2020
An annual report that looks at:

• what people are doing online
• how they are served by online content providers and platforms
• their attitudes to and experiences of using the internet

Digital Inclusion: Bridging Divides
Cumberland Lodge Report, 2020
This report explores the UK’s persistent ‘digital divide’ and how society is increasingly shaped by new forms of inequality, involving digital inclusion and exclusion.

It focuses on innovative ways of promoting high-quality digital education and participation, and addressing persistent digital divides, to support greater inclusion and opportunity for everyone in the UK.

The briefing document which forms Part I of the report was published before the known outbreak of COVID-19 in the UK. It has since been updated and offers useful background to the ideas and recommendations that follow in Part II.

Digital inclusion in health and care

Digital Inclusion for health and social care
NHS, 2019
A guide to help healthcare providers, commissioners, and designers ensure that services delivered digitally are as inclusive as possible, meeting the needs of all sections of the population.

Digital exclusion in population screening programmes
Citizens Online, 2020
An equality impact assessment of channel shift from printed media to online information within NHS England’s population screening programmes.

Co-design in health and digital
Good Things Foundation, 2019
Co-design is the method of involving users (people), stakeholders (decision makers) and practitioners (front line staff) in the process of design.

Digitising Leeds: Risks and opportunities for reducing health inequalities in Leeds
Your Healthwatch Leeds, 2020
The aim of this briefing paper is to highlight people’s experiences in Leeds of the move to digitised health and care services during COVID-19 and pre-COVID. With a particular focus on hearing the experiences of people with the greatest health inequalities.

Digital inclusion and the COVID-19 pandemic

Social connection in the COVID-19 crisis
All Party Parliamentary Group on Social Integration, 2020
This report finds that many efforts to reach isolated groups during the COVID-19 crisis have successfully moved online. But that can leave some of the most isolated individuals even further excluded. This is because they do not own or cannot afford devices, wifi or data to get online, or lack the skills or English fluency to manage online communication.

Learning from lockdown: 12 steps to eliminate digital exclusion
Carnegie UK Trust, 2020
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 the scale of digital exclusion in the UK has been clearly highlighted. While new initiatives have been rapidly and successfully delivered, substantially accelerating progress, there is still much more to be done to ensure no one in the UK is left digitally excluded.

This report is a response to this challenge, setting out a series of 12 recommendations calling for ambitious action from policy makers, practitioners, academics and industry to tackle this issue.

The doctor will Zoom you now: getting the most out of the virtual health and care experience
Traverse, 29 May 2020
A rapid research study that involved interviews with 12 people who had their care interrupted as a consequence of changing patterns of care due to the coronavirus pandemic. The aim was to understand the knock-on effects of COVID-19 on people with a wide range of conditions who had chosen not to seek care, as well as people whose appointments had been cancelled or postponed.

International digital inclusion case studies

Digital Inclusion Case Study Library
LOTI
A searchable database of 28 international case studies on digital inclusion initiatives.