Identifying the digital periphery of the European Union measuring the digitisation level of the EU NUTS 2 regions from a multiple criteria approach

Digitisation has generated profound changes, enabling new products (goods and services) and new production processes. In a way, the digital economy allows us to free ourselves from the effects of location, opening opportunities for peripheral regions. However, it has been confirmed that traditional centre/periphery dynamics persist in terms of access to the digital economy. The objective of this paper is to study the regional dynamics of digital development in Europe. To do this, we resort to recent EUROSTAT data of internet accessibility as well as to the intensity and typology of use of online potentialities, disaggregated at the NUTS 2 level. We propose applying the UW-TOPSIS approach to construct a multidimensional index that allows us to have a classification of the level of digitisation of the European regions obtaining the optimal weight of each digitisation criterion in the relative position of each region in the ranking. Through this analysis, we confirm the persistence in the level of digitisation of the traditional centre/periphery dynamics. Our results help in the identification of the European digital periphery and allow us to verify that this peripherality is influenced more by the absence of digital skills and culture than by the level of infrastructure development. • A multidimensional index spatially disaggregated at NUTS 2 level is calculated applying the UW-TOPSIS approach and using recent EUROSTAT data of internet accessibility and use. • A classification of the level of digitisation of the European regions is obtained with information about the relevance of each digitisation criterion in the relative position of each region in the ranking. • It is confirmed that centre/periphery dynamics persist in terms of digital economy development by European regions. • The digital peripherality is influenced more by the absence of digital skills and culture than by the level of infrastructure development.