Spain has climbed three places in the World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2024, the global digital competitiveness ranking compiled by the World Competitiveness Centre (WCC) at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), based in Switzerland. It thus regained the 28^th position it occupied in 2022 out of a total of 67 countries, and obtained a score of 70.86 out of 100.

The ranking, now in its eighth edition, measures the capacity and readiness of economies to adopt and explore digital technologies for economic and social transformation. The ranking is based on 38 statistical data sets and 21 sets of survey responses from senior executives to measure digital competitiveness among 67 global economies, exposing their various strengths and weaknesses.

Major strengths
Spain's major strengths, which contribute to achieving a good score for the various factors and sub-factors, are the rate of computer science education (ranked 7^th), the use of robots in education and R&D (7^th), bandwidth speed (7^th), R&D productivity per publication (9^th) and smartphone users (10^th).

The best scores Spain received relate to the sub-factors of scientific concentration (21^st), IT integration (22^nd), technological framework and adaptive attitudes (26^th in both areas). The country has also improved in other areas, such as capital, training, business agility and the regulatory framework.

In terms of the main factors measured by the ranking, Spain has regained its position across all three: the knowledge needed to discover, understand and build new technologies (26^th), how prepared the country is to take advantage of the digital transformation (29^th) and assessment of the general context enabling digital technologies to be developed (31^st).

Digital transformation
Through this classification, the IMD aims to help governments and businesses understand where resources should be consolidated and what the best practices are for approaching digital transformation. Three phenomena converge in the analysis and results: the disparate development of digital infrastructure, geopolitical tensions and the impact of emerging technologies.

In this edition, the United States has lost its top position and has dropped to fourth place, leaving the podium to Singapore, Switzerland and Denmark. They are followed by the United Kingdom and China.

The report concludes that talent and the right policies, with governments and businesses working hand in hand, can help bridge the digital divide. Technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and quantum computing can widen this gap, but they can also drive innovation and reshape industries, economies and societies.

^{Photo: IMD}