Comparing digital skills: Austria and Germany in the D21-Index

A special evaluation “Digital Skills in Age Comparison” of the D21 Digital Index 2025 shows clear differences in the digital skills distribution between Austria and Germany. Amongst online users, Austria achieves 65 out of 100 index points, ahead of Germany with 62 points, especially in the areas of access to the digital world and digital competence. While Austrian seniors are digitally more competent than their German peers, young Austrians show lower competence and openness scores than young Germans in several areas. The results show that digital skills, attitudes and resilience are distributed differently across age groups in both countries.

Digital sovereignty in old age: Targeted educational opportunities in Austria

There are clear differences between Austria and Germany when it comes to people over the age of 65. Depending on the area of competence, older people in Austria are up to 20% more likely to have digital skills; on average, the difference is between 10% and 15%. They also have a 15% lead in basic digital skills, while the difference in digital resilience is 5%.

One possible explanation for this is the higher level of continuing education among older people in Austria. They are more likely to acquire new digital knowledge, both informally and through formal offerings such as the A1 Senior Citizens' Academy, which has been in existence for more than 10 years. In Germany, around 30% of people over the age of 65 stated in July 2024 that they had not acquired any new digital knowledge in the past year; in Austria, this figure was 18% according to a survey conducted in May 2025. This is accompanied by long-term investments in programmes such as the Digital Skills Offensive (DKO) and target group-specific education for older people.

The picture is different for younger people

Among 14- to 29-year-olds, the Austrian pattern differs from the one observed in Germany. Young Austrians score lower than their peers in Germany in several areas of digital openness and competence. In some areas of competence, they achieve similar or slightly higher scores, but in others – such as everyday digital skills or the use of online government services – they lag behind. They are also less likely to have basic digital skills (−8%), are more critical of digitalisation, and have lower digital resilience (−11%).

Overall, the relationship between age and digital competence is more differentiated in Austria than in Germany. While there is often a clear correlation in favour of younger people across age groups, older people in Austria outperform younger people in individual areas, especially in terms of digital security and digital well-being. At the same time, young Austrians achieve higher scores in technically demanding, complex and job-related fields of competence.

Conclusion: Blanket approaches to promoting skills are hardly effective

From the point of view of the D21 initiative, the country comparison makes it clear that blanket approaches to promoting digital skills are not enough. The prerequisites, needs and challenges vary considerably depending on the age group. Accordingly, differentiated strategies are required that aim to remove barriers and strengthen everyday skills among older people, while also going beyond purely everyday use among younger target groups and promoting digital sovereignty and creative skills.