Greek SMEs Rank at Bottom of EU in Digital Intensity

Small and medium-sized businesses in Greece rank among the bottom three EU member-states regarding Digital Intensity Index (DII) performance—a composite indicator, derived from the reporting on the usage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) e-commerce in enterprises.

The small and medium-sized businesses in Greece (56.2%) are marked by extremely low digital intensity, only beating Bulgarian and Romanian enterprises, which recorded a lower performance with 72.1% and 70.6%, respectively, on the DII.

Over 90% of EU SMEs are expected to reach at least a basic level of digital intensity by 2030.

According to one of the goals of the Digital Decade, an EU policy aiming to achieve digital transformation, over 90% of EU SMEs should achieve at least a basic level of digital intensity by 2030.

Currently, the results are off target, as in 2023, SMEs across the EU were 32 percentage points away from achieving the 2030 target in the Digital Decade.

Only 4.4% of European small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) reached a very high level of digital intensity, while 19.6% reached a high level. The majority of enterprises recorded low (33.8%) or “very low” (42.3%) levels of digital intensity.

The highest percentage of enterprises achieving a very high DII level was in Finland (13.0%), Malta (11.4%), and the Netherlands (11.0%).

While promoting digital transformation in a country’s business sector, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, is crucial in the modern technological age, businesses in Greece are faced with more pressing and immediate problems, such as high operational costs.

The Digital Intensity Index (DII) indicator is useful to describe the extent to which EU enterprises are digitalized. It measures the use of different technologies by enterprises and was for the first time compiled in 2015.