Digital Divide in France: A Persistent Generational and Educational Gap

Digital Illiteracy Persists Among Seniors and Less Educated Individuals

In 2025, a study reveals that 7% of French people aged 16 to 74 are affected by digital illiteracy. Among them, 5% are not connected to the Internet, and 2% are online but lack digital skills. This phenomenon intensifies with age: 17% of individuals aged 60 to 74 are affected, compared to only 1% of those aged 16 to 29.

Education level plays a crucial role in this digital divide. Among individuals with an education level equivalent to a certificate or lower, 19% are affected by digital illiteracy, including 14% who are non-internet users and 5% without skills. In contrast, this figure drops to less than 1% for graduates with a bachelor's degree or higher. Those with a vocational diploma (CAP or BEP) are at 10%, those with a high school diploma at 2%, and those with a two-year degree at 1%.

Thus, digital illiteracy is primarily concentrated among less educated seniors. Among those aged 60-74 with an education level below the certificate, the rate reaches 35%.

Digital Skills: Often at a Basic Level

In 2025, only 35% of French people possess an advanced level of digital skills, while 31% have a basic level and 27% a low level. Even among young people aged 16 to 29, only 51% reach an advanced level, with the others split between low and basic levels. The gap widens with age: among those aged 60-74, only 16% achieve this level.

Education remains a determining factor: 58% of graduates with a bachelor's degree or higher have an advanced level, compared to only 18% of individuals with a certificate or lower.

Digital skills are assessed in five areas by INSEE, revealing significant disparities:

• Communication: 85% of French people have advanced knowledge.
• Information search: 71%.
• Problem-solving: 67%.

However, two areas show significant lag:

• Privacy protection and confidentiality: mastered at an advanced level by only 53% of respondents.
• Software usage: 56%.

These two skills also present the highest rates of total lack of knowledge: 22% for privacy protection and 23% for software.

Generative AI: A Popular Tool Among Students

In 2025, 37% of French people aged 16 to 74 have used generative artificial intelligence in the past three months. The generational gap is striking: 73% of those aged 16-29 use it, compared to only 9% of those aged 60-74. Employment status is also a major differentiating factor. Students stand out with a usage rate of 85%, far above employed individuals (40%) and the unemployed (43%). For students, learning is the primary reason for usage (87%), well ahead of personal use (63%).

For the rest of the population, personal use predominates, with 74% of users citing it as their main reason. Even among employed individuals, professional use (61%) remains lower than personal use (75%).

Digital Equipment: Uneven Adoption

In 2025, 79.4% of French people aged 15 and older own a computer, 84.2% a smartphone, and 40.5% a tablet. E-readers are less common, owned by 9% of the population, while 7.2% of individuals do not own any of these devices.

Living standards strongly influence equipment ownership, but unevenly across devices. The gap is particularly marked for computers: 20 percentage points separate the top quartile (69.9%) from the bottom (90.3%). For smartphones, the gap is narrower (12 points), indicating that this device has become nearly universal, even in low-income households. The e-reader, on the other hand, remains strongly linked to living standards: 15.6% in the top quartile, compared to 6.1% in the bottom.

Age has a more significant impact than living standards for certain devices. Smartphones are almost universal up to age 74 (75.6% among those aged 60-74), but usage drops to 48.5% among those aged 75 and older. It is also in this age group that the total non-ownership rate is highest: 34.6%, five times the national average.

Geographical density has the least influence on digital equipment. The gap between non-suburban rural areas and dense urban areas does not exceed 3 points for computers and 11 points for smartphones. The total non-ownership rate remains contained, between 5.6% and 10.2% depending on the areas.