Basic Digital Skills UK Report 2018
Findings for the Lloyds Bank UK Consumer Digital Index 2018
Ipsos was commissioned by Lloyds Bank to help produce a report to look into the level of digital capability across the UK, using different demographic and technology ownership groups to highlight any differences. Last year, the 2017 Basic Digital Skills study found that 79% of the UK population had the basic level of digital skills. However, there were significant demographic, geographic, and technographic disparities across the population. In 2018, Lloyds Banking Group and The Tech Partnership commissioned a repeat of the study to monitor any changes in the level of digital capabilities in comparison to last year.
The study focused on 5 key areas:
- Managing information
- Problem solving
- Communicating
- Creating
- Transacting
The key findings from the study were as follows:
- The level of Basic Digital Skills in the UK amongst the adult population has remained at 79%.
- Being able to manage information, communicate, and transact through digital means continue to be the skills people are strongest in, and the proportion having done tasks within these areas in the last 3 months has increased significantly. Creating continues to be the most challenging skill set, particularly being able to create something new from existing online media.
- Regionally, whilst the majority of the UK have been stable or seen a small increase in the level of Basic Digital Skills, Northern Ireland and Wales (both 66%) have seen the biggest decreases.
- The South East (86%) continues to have the highest level of Basic Digital Skills, followed by Greater London (82%).
- In comparison to UK adults overall, 65+ and C2DEs, the groups with the lowest digital capability, continue to have lower levels of device ownership. Since last year, smartphone ownership has increased amongst 65+. Conversely, tablet ownership amongst this older age group has decreased, a trend also seen amongst UK adults.
Downloads
Download a copy of the Lloyds Bank UK Consumer Digital Index 2018 using Ipsos data
Technical Details
- The study comprised Ipsos Connect’s quarterly Tech Tracker using Ipsos CAPIBUS to get a truly nationally representative view of device ownership and usage in Great Britain amongst adults aged 15+
- The CAPIBUS uses face-to-face interviewing to ensure no online bias, and is uniquely sampled based on Output Areas to ensure a robust sample
- For this study, the Tech Tracker was boosted to 4,000 interviews and interviewing was also conducted in Northern Ireland to ensure UK-wide figures
- Two digital skill questions, containing eleven digital tasks, were added to the Tech Tracker:
- What tasks could you do if asked?
- Which tasks have you done in the last three months?
- The answers to these questions were combined to identify a participant’s digital skills; those who said they could do all five skills were classified as having Basic Digital Skills
- Where comparisons between sub-groups have been made, the results have been statistically tested at a 95% confidence interval and any significant differences are highlighted by a directional arrow
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