News
|

The Conversation: Finland is Europe's most digitalised country – but older people are still left behind

Yngre och äldre man framför ett träd
Governments have promoted digitalisation of public services to improve efficiency, cut costs and meet modern demands for speedy responses. “This push for the digital has caught some people by surprise. Many older adults now feel they face another hurdle in living an independent life”, Hanken’s Professor Emeritus Jeff Hearn writes in The Conversation.

Together with Associate Professor Charlotta Niemistö from Åbo Akademi University and Doctoral Researcher Hanna Sjögren from University of Helsinki, Hearn writes about how digitalisation of services is rapidly changing older people’s lives across Europe. The post-pandemic movement of booking appointments, vaccines and basic services online accelerated things. Banks and insurance companies now operate mainly online, with in-person options getting rarer by the day in many countries.
 
Their recent study focuses on Finland, the most digitalised country in Europe. Finland’s first national strategy report on digitalisation was back in 1995. This laid the groundwork for online public services, well before initial steps in the UK and other countries, and when using email was not even an everyday experience.

Finland’s ombudsman for older people estimated recently that the country has between 500,000 and 600,000 residents over the age of 65 who lack digital skills, or don’t have enough skills for independent digital tasks, even if they would otherwise be able to cope independently in their day-to-day lives. This is about 40%-45% out of a total population of about 1.3 million in that age group. However, across political divisions, digitalisation continues to be seen as a self-evident good.

Read the full article here: The Conversation: Finland is Europe's most digitalised country - but older people are still left behind