UK drops down digital economy rankings

The UK has dropped six places in the past two years

The UK has dropped one place in the annual global digital economy rankings compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

The survey ranks 70 countries using a range of criteria, including the quality and ubiquity of broadband and mobile access.

A poor score for access and use of online services left the UK in 14th place, following a similar slump last year.

Overall Sweden beat Denmark to the top spot, while Finland, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan all made strong advances in broadband quality.

A low score for connection quality sent Canada dropping from ninth last year to 11th for 2010, but the US fared better, with a score that raised it two places to third.

Several countries in Europe, including The Netherlands, Norway, France and Germany, suffered a decline in their scores because their high-speed networks are in need of further development, according to the EIU.

On the other hand, Asian countries that have invested heavily in next-generation networks moved up the table.

Denis McCauley, the EIU's director of global technology research, said: " Strong digital development requires concerted action and progress across many fronts."

He added that this year's leader, Sweden, and most of the other top-tier countries, benefit from stable business and legal environments, strong educational and cultural drivers and supportive government ICT policies.

The research also found the digital divide is narrowing: where 5.9 points (on a 1-10 scale) separated the top-ranked country from the bottom-ranked in 2009, the gap narrowed to 5.5 points in this year's study.

Although this was partly due to model changes introduced this year, the report suggested lower-tier countries in particular are making up ground in the area of broadband affordability.

The EIU has published its annual digital ranking of the world’s largest economies since 2000, using a model developed in co-operation with the IBM Institute for Business Value.