Initiative D21 and fortiss today presented the results of the study "eGovernment MONITOR 2019". The annual study provides an overview of the use and acceptance of digital administrative services in German-speaking countries. The result: Although more and more German citizens are using digital administrative services, Germany still has some catching up to do in an EU comparison.
In Germany, almost one in two (48 percent) uses information and services from public authorities via the Internet. Compared to the previous year, this is an increase of 8 percentage points. These figures are still below those of the comparable countries Austria (70 percent, -4 percentage points) and Switzerland (58 percent, +2 percentage points). In the long-term trend, Germans have so far hardly been motivated to make more intensive use of the service (by comparison, in 2012 the figure was 45 percent). In an EU comparison, Germany ranks 24th, far below the EU average.
Known hurdles
The biggest obstacle is still that the desired digital services are not or not completely offered online. The new Online Access Act (OZG) is intended to change this: It stipulates that by 2022, all administrations will be required to and make it usable in the comprehensive portal network.
The complete study can be found here (german).