How’s life in the digital age in Australia?
Compared to other OECD countries, Australia benefits substantially from the opportunities offered by the digital transformation, with high performance in the dimension of education and skills as well as high levels of Internet access and use. The share of people with digital skills in Australia is one of the highest in the OECD, and these skills are evenly distributed across the population. In addition, relatively few teachers in Australia report a lack of ICT skills. At the same time, people in Australia produce a high level of e-waste per person (23.6 kg per inhabitant). Children in Australia also face risks from the digital transformation, with 28% using the Internet for more than 6 hours on a weekend day. The assessment of benefits from the digital transformation in Australia should be interpreted with caution due to the unavailability of information on opportunities and risks in several domains such as work-life balance, jobs and earnings, digital security and subjective well-being.
Note: This wheel depicts Australia’s relative performance in terms of key opportunities and risks in the context of the digital transformation. The centre of the wheel corresponds to the lowest outcome observed across all OECD countries, while the outer circle corresponds to the highest outcome. For opportunities (in dark blue) longer bars indicate better outcomes, whereas for risks (in yellow), longer bars indicate worse outcomes. If data are missing for any given indicator, the relevant segment of the circle is shaded in white.