Our team at the University of Amsterdam*, just released new findings on the state of digital competence in the Netherlands — and the results are surely interesting! In short: most Dutch people think they’re digitally skilled, but our data show that their actual abilities don’t always match.
Using our updated DigIQ 2.0 instrument, we surveyed nearly 2,500 individuals aged 10 and older. Participants assessed their own digital skills and then completed knowledge questions and practical tasks covering areas such as information evaluation, digital transactions, online safety, well-being, and generative AI.
What We Found
Across the board, self-reported skills were high, but real-world performance often fell short. For example, many participants believed they could identify misinformation or manage their screen-time effectively, yet struggled on the corresponding tasks. We also saw clear demographic differences:
- Younger and higher-educated respondents tended to perform better,
- While older adults and lower-educated groups faced more challenges.
- When it came to generative AI, confidence was lowest across all groups, and many lacked even basic understanding of how such systems work or how they affect privacy.
The takeaway: there’s a growing mismatch between how skilled people feel online and how skilled they actually are.
Why It Matters
This “confidence–competence gap” has real consequences. When people overestimate their digital skills, they may take unnecessary risks – for example, trusting unreliable sources, sharing sensitive data, or failing to use proper security measures. As digital tools become ever more integrated into daily life — from banking to healthcare to AI-assisted communication — the ability to use them safely and effectively is critical. And when certain groups consistently lag behind, digital inequality becomes a form of social inequality.
Coming Soon
Next up, we’ll be launching the DigIQ Dashboard — a public, interactive tool that visualises these findings (and future findings) in detail. It’s designed to make our research more transparent, usable, and actionable for educators, policymakers, and researchers alike. Stay tuned for the release announcement. In the meantime, you can read the full press release from the University of Amsterdam here:
👉 Nederlanders zijn digitaal minder handig dan ze denken (UvA News, 11 Nov 2025)
🇬🇧 Download report (EN-version) here.
About The Team
The research was conducted by UvA researchers Annemarie van Oosten, Roos Korderijnk, Claes de Vreese, and Jessica Piotrowski (PI), together with HU researcher Dian de Vries, with support from the Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties.