When we picture the digital-first and digital-native revolution powered by smartphones, apps and the lifestyles they evoke, we often think of millennials and Gen Z as the sole drivers, but research finds that’s far from the case when gauging digital transformation of whole nations.
Completing digital transformation worldwide, and within individual countries, requires consumers from every demographic to place these services at the center of how they live, work, play and pay in the post-pandemic world.
Benchmarking The World’s Digital Transformation, a PYMNTS and Stripe collaboration, drew from a quarterly survey of more than 15,100 people in 11 nations to gauge digital progress worldwide, benchmarking responses against the PYMNTS ConnectedEconomy™ Index (CE Index). Of six major trendlines the survey identified, the second addresses a need for wider participation in digital mediums by people of all ages.
Top Transformers Transcend Age
Showing how far we’ve come — and the amount of work still ahead — Benchmarking The World’s Digital Transformation notes that the “biggest impediment to a country’s digital transformation is that there are too few people engaged in digital activities.”
On average, our research found that just 19% of those in the 11 nations we studied “are highly engaged in digital activities, even though nearly everyone has the tools to do so. The more that all age groups in a population engage with digital activities, the more progress a country will make, and the higher the country’s CE Index ranking overall.”
Making the point is the fact that countries furthest along in their digital transformations are those where digital is age agnostic.
This is a chief reason why Singapore leads all others in the study, with digital engagement outpacing other nations “because more of its baby boomer and Gen X populations engage in digital activities than those of the other countries.”
As the study adds, “The full transformation of the digital economy, a CE Index score of 100, will hinge upon more consumers engaging more frequently in more digital activities, particularly in those countries where engagement is very low today — among them Japan, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the U.S. — as well as expanding internet access to countries in which large segments of the population lack access.”
Get your copy: Benchmarking The World’s Digital Transformation
Calling All Boomers, Seniors
Digging deeper into the findings, Singapore isn’t alone in its advanced transformation as other nations studied also show digital engagement now reaching into demographic groups that were slow to adapt.
The research finds that countries with higher index scores such as Spain “see higher levels of digital engagement among all age groups, including baby boomers and seniors.”
“The situation is flipped in both the U.S. and Japan, where baby boomers and seniors are far less engaged digitally in any of the 40 activities than millennials and Gen Z. Baby boomers and seniors in Japan are the least digitally engaged of any country,” per the study.
Get your copy: Benchmarking The World’s Digital Transformation
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More