Digitalization of society - Türkiye Digital Society Index

This chapter proposes an index to measure Turkish society's digitalization performance, called the Türkiye Digital Society Index (TDSI). The TDSI measures the digitalization level of households in three main categories: connectivity, internet use, and access to digital public services. It utilizes data from the Turkish Statistical Institute's Household Information Technologies Usage Survey. The TDSI shows significant progress in Turkish household digitalization between 2004 and 2021. Following a ten-year period of rapid growth from 2004 to 2013, the digitalization level of Turkish society continued to increase steadily until 2019. There was a pause in 2020, but the index resurged during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the TDSI also reveals significant disparities in the level of digitalization and its progress over time. These disparities exist across regions, genders, education levels, and age groups. Looking at regional digitalization performance, western and coastal regions stand out with the fastest rise in the index. Conversely, the central and eastern regions started at lower levels and have made less progress. From a demographic perspective, men have a higher level of digitalization than women. Furthermore, younger people and those with higher education consistently showed higher performance over time.