Paradigms of the digital economy and society: a comparative analysis of Latvia and Lithuania

Digital progress in the European Union is a catalyst for economic development. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly accelerated the pace of digitalization, thereby creating not only challenges for the European Union but also new opportunities for economic development in Europe. The present research focuses on an analysis of digital economy and society index scores for Latvia and Lithuania, comparing the performance of both countries with the European Union average. The research aims to identify the critical areas that hinder digital progress in Latvia and Lithuania. Accordingly, the digital economy and society index was analysed for the period from 2018 to 2023. The empirical part of the research includes a sociological survey, and the survey data were analysed in order to identify population needs for and experience in using digital technologies in Latvia and Lithuania. The survey involved 146 respondents. The research results allowed us to identify the critical areas for Latvia and Lithuania to focus on for further digital progress. Latvia and Lithuania both show high scores, well above the EU average, in the ‘digital public servicesʼ component, indicating that both countries have a high level of e-government users and widespread access to digital public services. The results of the sociological survey further confirm this, showing that a large majority of 84.25% of respondents in both Latvia and Lithuania use digital solutions in their daily lives.