Key statistics
- an estimated 13-19 million people aged 16 and over in the UK experience digital poverty
- digital poverty is driven by income constraints, infrastructure gaps and limited digital skills
- significant regional variation exists in levels of digital poverty
- modelling suggests substantial social and economic benefits from reducing digital poverty.
Key messages
- digital poverty affects a large proportion of the UK population
- lack of access to devices, connectivity and skills is unevenly distributed
- digital access is closely linked to income, geography and education
- reducing digital poverty delivers wider social and economic benefits
- digital access functions as a determinant of health and social care inequality.
Policy implications
- funding for devices and connectivity is needed at population scale
- digital skills support should be embedded within public services
- national and local strategies must address infrastructure and affordability
- tackling digital poverty is integral to reducing inequalities in health and social care.
Gaps
- need for more granular data on impacts for specific population groups
- challenges in evaluating long-term effects of large-scale digital inclusion programmes.
Commentary
This report positions digital access as a foundational condition for participation in modern health and social care systems. By quantifying the scale of digital poverty and its underlying drivers, it shows that exclusion from digital services is not marginal but widespread.
The findings highlight how digital poverty maps onto existing patterns of disadvantage. People with lower incomes, weaker infrastructure and fewer digital skills are more likely to face barriers to online health information, digital appointments and technology-enabled care. As digital routes become increasingly embedded in service delivery, these gaps translate directly into unequal access.
Rather than framing digital exclusion as an individual deficit, the report emphasises its structural nature. Access to devices, affordable connectivity and skills support emerges as a prerequisite for fair access to care, not an optional add-on.
Overall, the analysis supports that efforts to expand digital health and care must be accompanied by large-scale investment in inclusion. Without addressing digital poverty directly, the use of technology in care risks reinforcing existing social and care inequalities rather than helping to reduce them.