The levels of digital inequality: Features of the impact in the Ural federal district

Introduction. Access to information, digital products and services contributes to reducing barriers in individual’s interaction with state, organizations, and other individuals, also providing opportunities for human development. The author assesses the digital inequality level of the constituent entities of the Ural Federal District. Materials and methods. Theoretically, the research is based on the concept of three levels of digital inequality, according to which inequality can be manifested at the level of access to Internet and information and communication technologies; at the level of the users’ digital skills and competencies; at the level of benefits obtained from the use of digital technologies and impacting individual life chances. The materials used are: statistical data of the Russian information society development monitoring, research on the digital literacy of the Russian population, conducted by the Analytical Center of the National Agency for Financial Research, the Russian Association of Electronic Communications, the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation and the National Research University “Higher School of Economics”, as well as the results of an expert survey conducted by the author in 2023 with state civil servants of the Sverdlovsk region and employees of “Electronic government operator”, the state budgetary institution of the Sverdlovsk region. Results. The article reveals the specific features of digital inequality of the entities of the Ural Federal District. The geographical features of the region paradoxically affects the digital inequality level. The more compactly located territories of the Sverdlovsk, Tyumen and Chelyabinsk regions provide for the appropriate infrastructure with better broadband Internet access. A social consequence of low Internet access in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is, in part, that not all medical organizations can be connected to the Integrated National Health Information System. In addition, there is no direct correlation between Internet access and digital skills development. On the contrary, remoteness and inaccessibility of territories act as drivers for the development of digital competencies of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Yugra residents, who are more efficient in using digital technologies in e-commerce and public services. Discussions and conclusions. “Bridging the Digital Divide” federal program implementation will increase the information infrastructure availability. Conscious and focused effort is required to improve digital literacy and cyber hygiene of the population.