Luxembourg: 3rd largest share of ICT specialists in the EU

19 May 2022

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A new report from Eurostat highlights Luxembourg’s high proportion of ICT specialists in its workforce

As digital transformation ranks high on Luxembourg and European policy agendas, readying citizens and businesses for a new digital age and technologies has been made a priority. For Luxembourg’s economy, the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) industry is an important contributor to help transform workplaces to increase productivity and efficiency.

The new Eurostat report ‘ICT specialists in employment’ evidences the growth of the ICT sector: the number of ICT specialists in the EU grew by 50.5 % from 2012 to 2021, almost 8 times as high as the increase (6.3 %) for total employment. In addition, the report also highlights the gender gap in the profession. In 2021, EU figures showed that 80.9 % of those employed as ICT specialists were men against 19.1 % for women.

Luxembourg ranks 3rd in the EU

At 6.7%, Luxembourg’s proportion of ICT specialists was only bettered by Sweden (8.8%) and Finland (7.4%). The growth and attractiveness of Luxembourg’s ICT sector is aided by its digital infrastructure and excellence in cybersecurity and data protection.

Concerning the gender gap in ICT specialists, the share of women specialists in Luxembourg is 19.7%. While the number is low, it fairs better that the EU average of 19.1%.

Luxembourg’s state-of-the-art research and infrastructure

Digitalisation implies fundamental changes in all areas of the economic and societal functioning. The data that is generated in unimaginable quantities through our connected lifestyle is a new resource with a yet unexplored potential, raising also questions related to privacy.

That is why digitalisation, ICT and data science represent a transversal thread within the four priority areas of the National Research and Innovation strategy:

in the industrial and service transformation domain, the upcoming digitalisation will imply fundamental changes for industry and service providers that are active in Luxembourg. The country has the ambition to become a knowledge-driven data economy actively seeking to diversify its economic activities taking up the latest technological developments and providing high value added. The research carried out in this area should provide the scientific basis for such a development;

in the health sector, in the field of personalised data-driven digital biomedicine, Luxembourg wants to be among the leading countries in the world;

in the education sector, digital tools and technologies become the content of new training programmes while also being used as a means of delivery for these new contents;

concerning sustainable and responsible development, questions about regulations for a responsible and privacy-respecting use of data, as well as ethical questions around data use and disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence will be in the focus of Luxembourg’s research efforts.

The digital sector in Luxembourg can count on the country’s outstanding digital infrastructure. It notably includes smart, redundant electricity grids, the highest density of Tier IV certified datacentres in the world and the best connectivity in Europe.

Discover some of this infrastructure here