From Access to Capabilities: A Cluster Analysis of the Digital Divide across European Union Economies
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Darya DANCAKOVÁ Department of Banking and Investment, Faculty of Economics, Technical University of Košice, Slovakia
This study examines changes in the multidimensional profile of digital transformation across 22 European Union member states that are also OECD members, comparing two benchmark years 2017 and 2023. The proposed framework extends beyond digital access to include ICT human capital, innovation capacity, cybersecurity preparedness, and digital economic outcomes. Using data from Eurostat, the OECD, and the World Bank, the study applies k-means clustering, Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM), Principal Component Analysis, hierarchical clustering, and the Adjusted Rand Index to classify countries and assess changes over time.
Two clusters, catching-up and advanced, were identified in both years, although their composition changed. The catching-up cluster increased from 12 to 14 economies in 2023, with Estonia moving to the advanced cluster and Austria, Belgium, and France moving in the opposite direction. These transitions reflect relative repositioning rather than digital deterioration, as the advanced profile became increasingly associated with ICT skills, secure digital infrastructure, digital-service exports, and economic capacity. While connectivity gaps narrowed, disparities in skills, innovation, cybersecurity, and competitiveness persisted, suggesting partial convergence in digital access but continued divergence in digital capabilities.
Copyright© 2026 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article’s History: Received 15th of June, 2026; Revised 30th of July, 2026; Accepted 19th of August, 2026; Available online: 30th of September, 2026. Published as article in the Volume XXI, Fall, Issue 4(94), 2026.
Dancaková, D. (2026). From Access to Capabilities: A Cluster Analysis of the Digital Divide across European Union Economies. Journal of Applied Economic Sciences, Volume XXI, Fall, 4(94), 1215 - 1240. https://doi.org/10.57017/jaes.v21.4(94).07
CRediT Authorship Contribution Statement: Dancaková, D.: Responsible for conceptualising, developing methodology, curating data, performing formal analysis, conducting investigations, managing software, validating results, creating visualisations, and handling the original draft writing as well as review and editing.
Acknowledgments: During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used Grammarly solely to improve language, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and readability. The tool did not replace the authors’ intellectual contribution and was not used to generate scientific content, conduct the analysis, interpret the findings, or formulate the conclusions.
Funding: This paper is the output of a research project supported by the MINEDU of the Slovak Republic [grant No. 1/0638/25].
Conflict of Interest Statement: The authors state that no commercial or financial conflicts influenced the research.
Data Availability Statement: The data for this study were sourced from publicly accessible platforms such as Eurostat, the OECD Data Explorer, and the World Bank Open Data. The assembled dataset for the cluster analysis, along with the R scripts used for statistical analysis and figure creation, can be obtained from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. All original data continue to be publicly available via the respective providers.
Ethical Approval Statement: This study used only anonymised, aggregated secondary data from publicly accessible international sources such as Eurostat, the OECD Data Explorer, and the World Bank Open Data platform. No human participants, personal data, animals, surveys, interviews, or experiments were involved. Consequently, ethical approval and informed consent were not necessary. The research adhered to ethical principles of scientific investigation, and all data usage complied with the providers' terms and conditions.
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