Regional trajectories and disparities of the relationship between information society and sustainable development goals in Europe with the emergence of COVID-19

Abstract

This research analyses, from a spatio-temporal perspective, the evolution of the behaviour and disparities of European regions in relation to information and communication technologies (ICTs) by households and individuals and socioeconomic sustainability for the period 2011–2020. Three complex variables (factors), prepared on the basis of the data of official Eurostat on the Information Society and statistics on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are used to classify 231 regions for 2011, 2018 and 2020 through cluster analysis; and a synthetic index was constructed to compare and analyse the evolution of the behaviour of European regions. The results show that COVID-19 entailed: i) an increase in regional disparities evidenced by the increase in the number of groups of regions, the regions with a negative index and the differences between countries; and ii) a change in the characteristics of European regions that moved on from being defined by the use of advanced and basic ICTSs in the period 2011–2018 to a s Wang ation where aspects of social and economic sustainability predominated in 2020. These findings may help to apply EU policies more effectively by prioritising the regions that need to make a greater effort in the digitalisation of households and individuals and improve the levels of SDGs in their socio-economic dimension.