Digital Skills in Northern Ireland
Digital Skills in Northern Ireland
All tables associated with this report can be downloaded from the NISRA website.
1. Overview
This paper examines the level of digital skills of people aged 16 and over in Northern Ireland for the period April 2021 to March 2022 (referred to as 2021/22), as sourced from the Continuous Household Survey (CHS). Additional analysis of digital skills levels is also provided for sex, age, labour market status and deprivation quintile (least and most deprived).
1.1 Key points
- The majority of people aged 16 and over in Northern Ireland had a basic level of digital skills in 2021/22 (57% or 860,000 people).
- Almost one in five people aged 16 and over in NI had no digital skills (18% or 264,000 people).
- When comparing across age groups, nearly half of those aged 65 and over (47%) had no digital skills, compared to around 6-7% of those aged between 16 and 49.
- A higher proportion of those in the most deprived areas had no digital skills (21% compared to 15% in the least deprived).
- Similar proportions of males and females had no digital skills (17% and 18% respectively).
- Those between the ages of 25 to 49 had the highest proportion with above basic digital skills (approximately 35%). This is in comparison to 6.3% for those aged 65 and over.
1.2 Context
This paper presents the level of digital skills held by people aged 16 or over in NI and is based on data collected from the Continuous Household Survey (CHS), April 2021 to March 2022.
Respondents to the CHS were asked whether they had used the internet in the last twelve months to access or perform a list of functions.
These functions were collated to form four digital use sub-groups:
- use of online services
- finding information online
- communicating online
- using the internet safely and securely
and a measure of no, basic or above basic digital skills was derived using the four digital use sub-groups, as detailed throughout the publication.
Three of the digital use sub-groups above are broadly in line with several of the digital competence domains captured within the Eurostat Digital Skills Indicator (sourced from the ‘community survey on ICT usage by households and individuals’). In addition a ‘safety’ sub-group has been included for the NI data based on those within the ‘being safe and legal online’ aspect of the Essential Digital Skills Framework.
2. Digital skill level
This section provides an overview of the level of digital skills held for Northern Ireland as a whole, alongside further analysis by sex, age, labour market status and deprivation quintile (least and most deprived areas).
The analysis contained in this section is based on the following definitions, where the sub-groups are use of online services, finding information online, communicating online and using the internet safely and securely. (See 4.3 for more detail):
No Skills: not having accessed or performed any of the listed online functions.
Basic Skills: Having used the internet for at least one of the listed functions in communicating online, finding information, using online services or understand internet safety features but not more than one in all.
Above basic: Having used the internet for more than one of the listed functions across all sub-groups (communicating online, finding information, using online services and understand internet safety features).
Northern Ireland
Key findings:
- The majority of people aged 16 and over in Northern Ireland had a basic level of digital skills in 2021/22 (57% or 860,000 people), and almost 18% of people had no skills (264,000 people).
- Almost one in four people had above basic digital skills (25% or 376,000 people).
Figure 1: Majority of people aged 16 and over in NI have basic digital skills
Digital skill level, aged 16 and over, NI, April 2021 to March 2022
Chart
Table
| Digital skill level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| No skills | 17.6 |
| Basic skills | 57.3 |
| Above basic skills | 25.1 |
Figure 1 presents the digital skill level of those aged 16 and over in Northern Ireland. It shows almost one in five people had no digital skills (18%), meaning in the last twelve months they had not used the internet for online services (such as internet banking or making online purchases), had not found information online, communicated online and were not aware of a range of internet safety features.
In contrast, one in four had an above basic level of digital skills (25%). This meant they had used the internet for more than one online services, found different types of information online, communicated online in more than one way and were aware of multiple internet safety features.
The majority of respondents had a basic level of digital skills (57%), meaning they had accessed the internet for at least one function. However they did not use a range of functions across all four aspects of digital use.
The digital skill level in Northern Ireland differs as various cohorts are compared:
Sex
There were little differences in digital skill level between males and females:
- Similar proportions of males and females had no digital skills (17% and 18% respectively).
- Females had slightly higher levels of above basic digital skills (27%) than males (23%).
Age
There were large differences in digital skill levels between those 49 and under and those aged 50 and over:
- Almost half (47%) of those aged 65 and over had no digital skills, compared to around 6 to 7% of those aged 16 to 49.
- Those between the ages of 25 to 49 had the largest proportion with above basic digital skills (approximately 35%). This is in comparison to 6.3% for those aged 65 and over.
Labour Market Status
There were notable differences in digital skill level between those who were economically active and economically inactive:
- Over a third (35%) of those who were economically inactive had no digital skills, compared to 6.2% for the economically active.
- Around 1 in 10 (12%) of the economically inactive had above basic digital skills, which is in contrast to around a third (34%) of the economically active.
Deprivation quintile
There were large differences in digital skill level between those who were in the least deprived areas and those in the most deprived areas:
- A higher proportion of those in the most deprived areas had no digital skills (21% compared to 15% in the least deprived).
- Least deprived areas in NI had a higher proportion of above basic digital skills (by 14pps), when compared to the most deprived areas.
3. Understanding digital skills
In section 2 the level of digital skills in Northern Ireland was presented, alongside how this differs between key groupings such as sex or age. This section contains a closer look at what is driving these levels.
Figure 2: Sending and receiving emails is the most popular online function
Usage of online functions, aged 16 and over, NI, April 2021 to March 2022
Chart
Table
| Online function | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Use of online services | |
| Online purchases | 72.5 |
| Internet banking | 65.7 |
| Used online learning resources | 37.2 |
| Selling online | 22.9 |
| Finding information online | |
| Finding info non-public goods/services | 48.5 |
| Seeking health-related info | 46.6 |
| Communicating online | |
| Sending/receiving emails | 73.0 |
| Telephoning/video calls | 61.0 |
| Participating in social networks | 60.2 |
| Using the internet safely and securely | |
| Recognising suspicious links | 47.3 |
| Setting privacy settings | 41.3 |
| Identifying secure websites | 40.1 |
Figure 2 shows the use of online functions over the last twelve months, which are categorised by the four digital use sub-groups. In addition, 18% of people aged 16 and over did not use the internet in the last twelve months for any of the functions shown in figure 2.
The most popular use of the internet was sending and receiving emails (73%) followed by online purchases (less than 1pps difference). The least common use of the internet was for selling online, where almost a quarter of respondents (23%) reported selling something online in the last twelve months.
The least common digital use sub-group was using the internet safety and securely which included; recognising suspicious links, setting privacy settings, and identifying secure websites, and where less than half of respondents aged 16 and over said they used these features in the last 12 months.
Use of online services
At the NI level the use of online services ranged from 23% selling online to 73% buying online, this trend held when examined by sex, age, labour market status, and deprivation quintile.
Although all cohorts were least likely to use the internet to sell things online, the largest differences between age, labour market status, and deprivation quintile were in the use of internet banking. Notably, only 30% of those aged 65 and over had used internet banking in the last twelve months compared to 86% of those aged 25 to 34.
Finding information online
There were similar proportions at the NI level who used the internet to find information on non-public goods and services and seek health related information (49% and 47% respectively). When examined by age, sex, labour market status and deprivation quintile, there were some notable differences.
A significantly higher proportion of females used the internet to seek health related information than males (by 12pps). When considering labour market status - around a third of the economically inactive used the internet to find information on non-public goods and services or seek health related information, compared to almost 60% of those who were economically active.
Communicating online
Sending and receiving emails was the most common method of communicating online at the NI level (73% of all aged 16 and over). Although this trend held when examined by sex, age, labour market status and deprivation quintile, a notable difference was reported for participation in social networks in particular when examined by age. Around one in five (22%) of those aged 65 or over participated in social networks, compared to at least three quarters of those aged between 16 and 49.
In addition, those aged 50 or over were more likely to telephone or use video calls than participate in social networks, whereas the opposite was true for those under the age of 50, where a slightly higher proportion participated in social networks than telephoning/video calls.
Using the internet safely and securely
At the NI level, the three internet safety features were among the lowest use of the internet (at under 50%) and showed large differences when looking across age, labour market status and deprivation quintile in particular.
The most commonly used safety feature was recognising suspicious links across sex, age, labour market status, and deprivation quintile. However, there were notable differences across the various groupings, including where those in the most deprived areas had a lower incidence of recognising suspicious links compared to the least deprived areas (by 23pps).
A closer look at setting privacy settings by age showed that there was a wide range in those who had performed this function in the last twelve months - ranging from around one in ten (12%) of those aged 65 or over to 61% of those aged 16 to 24.
4. Further information
The information presented in this publication is derived from the Continuous Household Survey (CHS) April 2021-March 2022 (21/22), which was conducted by the Central Survey Unit (CSU) of the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).
A summary of further information is contained below. However users are advised to access the Digital Skills Supplementary Document or the CHS page for additional information relating to the CHS, quality and methodology.
4.1 Data Source
The questionnaire
The questionnaire has two distinct parts; a household schedule and an individual schedule. One person on behalf of the entire household answers the household schedule, while all participating adults in the household answer the individual schedule.
In a change to previous years, there is only one version of the questionnaire in the 2021/22 survey year, similar to the 2020/21 survey year. Therefore, all respondents are exposed to the same set of questions.
The sample
The sample for the survey consisted of a systematic random sample of addresses selected from the NISRA Address Register. The NISRA Address Register is maintained by Census Branch and is created by merging the POINTER database with additional records, and removing duplicates and communal establishments. The survey samples 9,000 addresses throughout the survey year (1 April 2021 – 31 March 2022). The NISRA Address Register provides a good sampling frame of addresses, but contains no information about the number of people living at an address.
Each interview begins with the interviewer listing all members of the household. Anyone aged 16 or over is eligible to take part in the survey and there can be multiple respondents at each household.
For the April 2021 to March 2022 year, 3,533 households took part in the survey. Within those households, a total of 4,103 individuals took part in the survey.
4.2 Methodology and Quality information
Impact of COVID-19
NISRA suspended all face-to-face households interviews in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 21/22 reporting period, all CHS interviews were conducted by telephone.
The achieved CHS 21/22 response rate in telephone mode was 41% and this is a slightly lower response compared to the normal achieved response rate of 55% in face-to-face mode. This has reduced the number of cases at the household and individual levels. The precision of the survey estimates in the 21/22 year is also reduced compared to previous findings. The demographic profile of the achieved sample has changed in comparison with previous years in terms, where there is more of an under-representation of people aged 16 to 44 compared to previous years.
Weighting
In order to estimate the number of people at each digital skill level, it is necessary to gross the findings from the survey to the NI population. The respondent data is weighted to the NI population by age group and sex. This ensures that the sample is representative of the overall NI population.
Due to the under-representation of people aged 16 to 44 and males during the 2021/22 reporting period on the Continuous Household Survey, the survey is weighted against the Mid-Year population estimates by age and sex.
Sampling error
The CHS is a sampling survey and therefore estimates obtained from it are subject to sampling variability. This means that if we drew many samples, each would give a different result. Table 1 shows the sampling variability of digital skill level of NI respondents using 95% confidence intervals. We would expect that in 95% of samples the range would contain the true value.
Table 1: Sampling variability of digital skill level in Northern Ireland, aged 16 and over, April 2021 to March 2022
| Digital skill level | Percentage | Percentage lower limit | Percentage upper limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| No skills | 17.6 | 16.4 | 18.8 |
| Basic skills | 57.3 | 55.8 | 58.9 |
| Above basic skills | 25.1 | 23.7 | 26.4 |
Further detail on the representativeness of the sample, comparisons between CHS and the Mid-Year population estimates, weighting and sampling error can be found in the Digital Skills Supplementary Document.
4.3 Question and definitions
CHS question and digital use sub-groups
The following question relating to whether a respondent had used the internet in the last twelve months to access or perform a list of functions was used to derive the digital skill level of respondents.
In the past 12 months have you used the internet for any of the following? (Select all that apply)
- Online purchases
- Selling online
- Internet banking
- Used online learning resources
- Finding info non-public goods/services
- Seeking health-related info
- Sending/receiving emails
- Telephoning/video calls
- Participating in social networks
- Setting privacy settings
- Identifying secure websites
- Recognising suspicious links
- None
With the exception of ‘none’, all other responses were subsequently grouped into four different aspects of digital use (sub-groups). Table 1 below shows the 12 online functions and the sub-group they are included in.
Table 2: Digital use sub-groups and online functions
| Online function |
|---|
| Use of online services |
| Online purchases |
| Internet banking |
| Used online learning resources |
| Selling online |
| Finding information online |
| Finding info non-public goods/services |
| Seeking health-related info |
| Communicating online |
| Sending/receiving emails |
| Telephoning/video calls |
| Participating in social networks |
| Using the internet safely and securely |
| Recognising suspicious links |
| Setting privacy settings |
| Identifying secure websites |
Definitions
Below are the definitions of terminology used throughout the report.
Labour Market Status
Analysis is provided for those who are economically active and economically inactive within this publication. Economically active are those aged 16 and over who are either in employment or unemployed. The economically inactive are people who are neither in employment nor unemployed. This group includes, for example, all those who were looking after a home or retired.
Employment
People aged 16 or over who did at least one hour of paid work in the reference week (whether as an employee or self-employed); those who had a paid job that they were temporarily away from; those on government-supported training and employee programmes and those doing unpaid family work.
Unemployment
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines unemployment as those aged 16 and over without a job who were able to start work in the two weeks following their interview and had either looked for work in the four weeks prior to interview or were waiting to start a job they had already obtained.
Deprivation Quintile
The Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure is the official measure of spatial deprivation for NI and comprises seven domains of deprivation as follows: income, employment, health, education, proximity to services, living environment and crime. Where 1 is the most deprived and 5 is the least deprived. Further details on deprivation measurement in NI can be found at Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure 2017 (NIMDM2017)
Percentage calculation
Proportions are calculated as a percentage of the total population in that grouping. For example, the percentage of no skills for the 16 to 24 age group is calculated by dividing those aged 16 to 24 who had no digital skills by the total aged 16 to 24 population.
Rounding
Throughout this report, figures less than 100 are rounded to two-significant figures.
5.Contact
If you require further information about the figures contained in this publication or the accompanying tables, would like to provide feedback on the publication content, or be added to the mailing list please contact:
Holly McAteer
Email: Holly.McAteer@nisra.gov.uk
Web: Digital skills in Northern Ireland