Communications of the ACM

Europe Region Special Section: Hot topics

Europe's Well-Connected Consumers

By David Pringle
Communications of the ACM, April 2019, Vol. 62 No. 4, Page 36
10.1145/3309921
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Home to approximately 740 million people, many of them affluent, Europe spends a lot of money on information and communications technology (ICT). The European ICT market was worth $769 billion in 2017 (up 1.8% from 2016).^a

Yet, despite the best efforts of the European Union (EU), Europe is not one market. There are major cultural differences and economic disparities between northwest Europe and southeast Europe. Whereas Germany, the U.K., the Nordics, and the Netherlands tend to attract migrants from all over the world, many countries on the eastern and southern rims of Europe are seeing an exodus of young people and low birth rates. Indeed, the continent as a whole is aging: One fifth of the people in the 28 members of the EU (the EU28) are now 65 or over, compared with 17% in 2007.^b In the U.S., the equivalent figure is 15% and in China 11%.^c

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