Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

Indicators on the use of ICT in the Global 
Innovation Index
n
Indicator 1: Availability of information and com-
munication technologies 
The availability of information and communication 
technologies is calculated using the weighted aver-
age of five sub-indicators, each of which contributes 
20% to the overall indicator score: 
– landline telephone connections per 100 inhabi-
tants;
– mobile telephone contracts per 100 inhabi-
tants;
– data transmission to other countries (interna-
tional bandwidth) in bit/s; 
– percentage of households with at least one 
computer; 
– percentage of households with internet access.
n
Indicator 2: Use of information and communica-
tion technologies
 
The use of information and communication technolo-
gies is calculated using the weighted average of 
three sub-indicators, each of which contributes one 
third to the overall indicator score:
– percentage of internet users;
– fixed broadband connections per 100 inhabi-
tants;
– registered mobile broadband connections per 
100 inhabitants. 
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Indicator 3: “Online creativity”
 
The online creativity indicator is made up of four 
sub-indicators:
– generic top-level domains per thousand inhabi-
tants aged 15–69;

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1. Current Trends
43
– country-specific top-level domains per thou-
sand inhabitants aged 15-69;
– Wikipedia entries and amendments per million 
inhabitants aged 15-69; 
– number of downloads of mobile apps by coun-
try of origin of the company developing the app 
(standardised by GDP).
Fig. 1-17 shows the results for ICT availability. 
Austria’s score of 74.7 puts it seventh out of the 
28 EU countries and at a similar level to Canada and 
the USA in terms of the non-European countries in-
cluded. Given the composition of the indicator, 
therefore, it can be established that the number of 
landline and mobile telephone contracts, data 
transmission, computer use and Internet access are 
all relatively strong in Austria compared with other 
countries. One objective for the future might be to 
40 See Council for Research and Technology Development (2019b).
retain this leading international position in ICT 
availability.
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Interestingly, Austria’s leading position in ICT 
availability does not translate into a leading position 
in terms of its use, with the country only 16th in the 
EU (see Fig. 1-18). That said, there is no significant 
gap between Austria and the leaders: with a score of 
74.7, the country is only 5.3 points off France in sixth 
place in the EU rankings. 
Fig. 1-19 shows the results of the international 
comparison for the “Online creativity” indicator. This 
places Austria 12th, putting it in a midfield position 
at EU level. Europe’s leading lights are Luxembourg, 
the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries. The 
gap between Austria with 36.2 points (out of a pos-
sible 100) and Luxembourg with 67.6 is also compar-
atively high, indicating that Austria definitely still 
has untapped potential in the creation of mobile