As many as 21% of Croatia's population has never used the Internet, as against 11% in the whole of the European Union, the Jutarnji List daily wrote on Monday describing this statistics for Croatia as alarming.

The daily newspaper quotes the findings of the European Commission’s Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI).

DESI is a composite index that summarises relevant indicators on Europe’s digital performance and tracks the evolution of EU member states in digital competitiveness, also shows that there are still large disparities across EU member-states regarding the use of internet services

For instance, in Croatia every fifth citizen has never used Internet services as against a mere 2% in Denmark.

Broken down by age, all in the age cohort up to 25 years in Croatia use the Internet. Internet use is widespread among Croatians aged between 25 and 34, and a mere 1% of the Croatians in this age cohort have never used the Internet, however, 62% of Croatians aged above 65 have never been online, the Jutarnji List daily writes.

“Over the past year, all EU countries improved their digital performance. Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Denmark scored the highest ratings in DESI 2019 and are among the global leaders in digitalisation. These countries are followed by the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Ireland, Estonia, and Belgium. Some other countries however still have a long way to go, and the EU as a whole needs improvement to be able to compete on the global stage, ” the Commission has said while presenting the latest DESI index for 2019.