The digitalisation of society and the economy is a megatrend. The European Union, including Hungary, has strategic digitalisation objectives for 2030. Roadmaps have been drawn up to achieve these objectives, and their implementation is monitored annually and published in country-specific reports. According to the 2025 report of the EU’s digitalisation strategy, Hungary is progressing with its digital transition as planned. Internet coverage and service quality have been above the EU average for years. Fixed broadband internet coverage is 86% in Hungary and 82.5% in the EU. The proportion of gigabit subscriptions in Hungary is 39.8%, compared to an EU average of 22.3%. Domestic SMEs are currently integrating advanced technological solutions into their daily operations at a slower pace than their EU competitors. The government is seeking to support them in overcoming this lag and increasing their competitiveness through targeted development programmes. According to surveys, the digital skills of Hungarian adults are slightly above the EU average. There are fewer ICT specialists in Hungary, but more ICT graduates than in Europe in general. There are good examples for us for accelerating the digitalisation of public services, but we are performing better in e-health than the EU average.
Since 2014, the digitalisation process of the European Union and its member states has been monitored using the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) measurement system. The current values of the digitalisation indicators for each country are published in annual reports. Initially, a cumulative indicator was also created from the indicator values, which condensed the progress of the digital transformation of each EU member state into a single metric and made it easily comparable in space and time.
From 2023, DESI has been integrated, with some methodological refinements, into the monitoring system for the implementation of the EU’s digital strategy for the period up to 2030, the Digital Decade 2030 (DD). The cumulative indicator has been removed from the DESI system and the results of the European digitalisation process are now examined and evaluated in four indicator groups aligned with the objectives of Digital Decade 2030. Indicators have been defined for the development of digital infrastructure, the digital transformation of businesses, the development of EU citizens’ digital skills and the digitalisation of public services, with target values to be achieved by the end of the decade. The current values of the indicators are published annually in EU-wide and country-specific reports. The 2025 Digital Decade report is based on data from 2024, and Hungary’s performance in the previous year is highlighted in comparison with data from previous years and the current EU average values. The current Hungarian digitalisation strategy was developed at the same time and with the same timeframe as the EU strategy, and its implementation and regular review involve close cooperation with EU institutions, as reflected in the EU country report.
Digital infrastructure
As we showed in our previous analysis, Hungary has been performing above the EU average in terms of internet network roll-out, development and service quality for years, and this trend continued in 2024, according to data published in the EU report. An internet network that meets the VHCN standard is available in 86% of Hungarian households, while the EU average is 82.5%. A network that meets the FTTP standard reaches 79.9% of households in Hungary, compared to 62.2% in the EU. (FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) is a network where fibre optics are delivered directly to the user’s home or business. VHCN (Very High Capacity Network) is a broader category that also includes non-FTTP networks capable of high-bandwidth data transmission.) 5G coverage in Hungarian households increased by 2.3% in 2024 and currently stands at 85.6%. This figure is lower than the EU average (94.4%), but based on the rate of expansion, there is no significant risk of not reaching the 2030 target (99%).
In Hungary, fixed broadband internet subscription rates are excellent, while mobile internet subscription rates are below the EU average. The proportion of SIM cards using 5G among Hungarian subscribers increased by 180% in 2024, but even so, it is only 20.8%, while the EU average is 35.6%. At the same time, 88.4% of Hungarian fixed internet subscriptions offer speeds of 100 Mbps or higher, which is well above the EU average of 71.9%. The proportion of gigabit (at least 1 Gbps speed) fixed subscriptions is 39.8% in Hungary, compared to an EU average of 22.3%. We rank 5th in the EU in regard to the former and 2nd in relation to the latter.
The figure can be referenced here: https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/26336213/
Digital transformation of businesses
In the case of businesses, digitalisation refers to the process by which a company uses digital technologies to transform its operations, processes and, in some cases, the most essential characteristics of its products and services. Digitalisation encompasses every aspect of corporate value creation and its primary goal is to make the business operate more efficiently and increase its competitiveness and income-generating capacity.
Large enterprises integrate advanced technological solutions at a higher rate and faster than SMEs, which form a significantly larger and more heterogeneous group. (99% of enterprises are SMEs.) The European Union’s statistical office, Eurostat measures the digital transition of the business sector using the Digital Intensity Index (DII). In Hungary, 57.4% of SMEs have at least a basic level of digital intensity, which is below the EU average of 72.9%. According to the assessment of the country-specific report of Digital Decade 2025, the Hungarian government is taking ambitious measures in the field of business digitalisation in order to catch up and put Hungarian SMEs in a competitive position. The report highlights the “Every business should have its own website” programme, 100% funded from the domestic budget and launched at the end of 2024 as part of the Sándor Demján Programme. We examined the parameters and intervention focus points of this programme in a previous analysis.
Within the DESI system, the progress of the digital transformation of EU businesses is measured by the degree of adoption of three key technologies. The indicators show the percentage of businesses in a given country that have integrated cloud-based technologies, data analytics and artificial intelligence-based technologies into their operations.
For 2024, data has only been published for artificial intelligence-based technologies. Currently, 7.4% of Hungarian enterprises use at least one AI-based technology in their daily operations, while the EU average is 13.5%. Cloud-based technologies were used by 37.1% of Hungarian enterprises in 2023, which is close to the EU average (39%). 53.2% of domestic businesses used data analytics according to the DESI definition, which is well above the EU average of 33.3%.
Digital skills
This year’s Digital Decade report provides data for 2023 on the general digital skills level of the adult population. According to this, 58.9% of Hungarians have at least basic digital skills, which exceeds the EU average of 55.6%. The survey results show that young people, those with higher education and city dwellers are more comfortable in the digital world. There is a minimal difference between the digital skills levels of men and women in Hungary, only 1.5 percentage points, which is lower than the EU average (2.2 percentage points).
The EU also measures the presence of digital skills in the economy by the number of ICT (information and communication technology) professionals and their proportion of the total workforce. The Hungarian figure of 4.5% is below the EU average (5%). However, Hungary performs better than the EU average (4.5%) in terms of the proportion of ICT graduates (6.8%).
Digitalisation of public services
The progress of the digital transformation of public services is characterised in the DESI system by a score between 0 and 100. The DESI rates the digital maturity of public services provided to individuals in Hungary in 2024 at 77.7 points, which is below the EU average of 82.3 points. The digital maturity of Hungarian public services provided to businesses received a score of 80 points, while the EU average was 86.2 points.
At the same time, Hungarian e-health is more advanced than the EU average. The maturity of systems ensuring the digitalisation of health data and online access to health data for private individuals was rated at 86 points, while the EU average was 82.7 points.
According to the Digital Decade 2025 report, Hungary is progressing with its digital transition in line with its strategic plans. In terms of coverage and service quality, the internet network has been above the EU average for years. So far, Hungarian SMEs are integrating advanced digital technology solutions into their daily operations at a slower pace than their EU competitors. The government is seeking to support them in overcoming this lag and increasing their competitiveness through targeted development programmes. According to surveys, the digital skills of Hungarian adults are slightly above the EU average. There are fewer ICT specialists in Hungary, but more ICT graduates than in Europe in general. There are good examples for us for accelerating the digitalisation of public services, but we are performing better in e-health than the EU average.
Economic analyst. He graduated from Eötvös Loránd University with a degree in mathematics and economics. His areas of expertise are the digital economy, the economics of innovation, and the world of SMEs. He is married and the proud father of an adorable little boy.
