Finland is ranked fourth in digital economy rankings

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual rankings put Finland among the world’s leading countries for using ICT for economic and social benefit.

Finland has been ranked fourth in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual assessment of the ability of the world’s 70 largest economies to absorb information and communications technology (ICT) and use it for economic and social benefit. Last year Finland was ranked in tenth place.

The digital economy rankings assess the quality of a country’s ICT infrastructure and the ability of its consumers, businesses and governments to use ICT to their benefit. The rankings also provide companies that wish to invest or trade internationally with an overview of the world’s most promising business locations from an ICT perspective.
Finland is singled out in the report for enshrining Internet access as a basic human right and for its high level of utilizing radio frequency identification (RFID), a wireless data identification and capturing technology. Finnish companies are among the world’s earliest adopters of RFID technology, with a 8% utilisation rate compared to 3% in the EU27 countries. Finland also scored highly for its business and legal environment, consumer and business adoption, and social and cultural environment. Overall, Finland improved its ranking significantly from 10th.
Economist Intelligence Unit’s examined more than 100 separate criteria within the wider categories of connectivity and technology infrastructure, business environment, social and cultural environment, legal environment, government policy and vision, and consumer and business adoption.
Source: EIU digital economy rankings 2010