Communications of the ACM

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are home to very efficient teaching methods as they integrated computer studies into their school curricula since the Nokia and Ericsson years. The two mobile phone companies actually spirited a whole generation to place their trust in ICT. As for Estonia, political decisions taken 20 years ago turned the country into “one of the most advanced digital societies in the world.” e Despite its small size, Denmark is also very active in ICT and has attracted big corporate names, such as Microsoft, Uber, and IBM.

The Typical ICT Worker
and the Gender Gap

The overall picture of the
European ICT worker can
be summed up as follows:
A male over 35 with tertiary
education diploma. Almost
two-thirds of all people
employed as ICT specialists
in the EU are over 35 years of
e https://e-estonia.com
tions are more coherent with
their population ratios. The
number of ICT specialists
has grown over 36% in the
last 10 years,c a significant
jump from a mere 3.2% a
decade ago. This marked in-
crease helps explain why ICT
employment has resisted the
effects of the region’s overall
financial crisis.

Obviously, the raw numbers favor the most populated countries, but the proportion of ICT specialists in total employment country by country tells a different story, as Nordic countries lead the way. Finland comes first with 6.8% of its workforce dedicated to ICT.d In comparison, Germany is much further behind with 3.8%, and France tailing Germany with 3.7%. The other two leaders are Sweden and Estonia with 6.6% and 5.6% of their respective workforces dedicated to ICT.

Both Finland and Sweden
c http://bit.ly/2Dr16zI
d http://bit.ly/2S3Lfzo
EUROPE IS NOT a static entity but here is what it looks like in 2019: The European
Union is made up of 28
countries. The capital is
in Brussels, Belgium, and
the presidency is shared
among EU members each
semester. In 2019, the first
semester sees Romania
holding presidency until
June, then Finland until the
end of the year. An estimated

551.8 million people live in the EU, speaking 24 official languages. Approximately

72% of the population is
employed,a which is greater
than the pre-economic-crisis
peak of 2008. Men are more
employed than women by an
average of 11%.b
The ICT workforce in the
EU counts some 8. 4 mil-
lion people. The U.K. alone
provides almost 20% of this
workforce, although it only
accounts for 12.8% of the EU
population. The second and
third providers are Germany
and France, but the propor-
a http://bit.ly/2CGkreW
b https://bit.ly/2RYTmNI