Singapore, agency
Singapore's national ICT-skills measurement and baseline
Singapore's Department of Statistics ICT-skills table reports 99.0% in the total row for residents aged 16–74 in 2025, while 55.2% could use a basic arithmetic formula in a spreadsheet; the government uses the series to track SDG 4.4.1 and its Digital Skills for Life framework.
99 % of residents aged 16-74, residents with an ict skill in the total row, 2025. 55.2 % of residents aged 16-74, basic spreadsheet arithmetic skill, 2025. Singapore Department of Statistics, annual ICT-skills dataset (IMDA source), retrieved 2026-08-31.
The move, and what it needed
Singapore pairs a recurring skills measurement with a public baseline framework, Digital Skills for Life, and targeted support such as Seniors Go Digital. The combination makes digital capability a population service obligation rather than a one-off computer course, while the task rows reveal where basic access still masks deeper gaps.
Preconditions
- A statistical agency and digital ministry able to repeat a common task taxonomy and publish the results
- Universal connectivity and trusted public services that give adults reasons to practise digital tasks in daily life
- Accessible coaching, devices and safety guidance for older and lower-income residents who are least likely to learn informally
Where else it has been used: Digital-skills programmes travel when measurement, everyday use and targeted help reinforce one another; connectivity statistics alone can conceal a population that still cannot complete consequential tasks.
Limits: The table records task-specific self-reported or survey-derived skills for Singapore residents, not independently tested proficiency, workplace transfer or equal access. The age base changed from residents aged 15 and above in 2016–2020 to ages 16–74 from 2021, and a high total can hide weak performance on harder tasks such as spreadsheet work.
This record describes what Singapore delivered. It is linked to Adults doing digital tasks because no comparable dataset measures that capability. It does not affect the score or confidence.
More from Singapore
8 other deliveries from this country.
Singapore gave every citizen aged 25 and over an individual training account in 2016 and keeps topping it up, and in 2024 260,000 Singaporeans spent credit on courses, up 35 percent on the year before.
Housing and Development Board, public housing at scale
Singapore set up the Housing and Development Board in 1960 to address a severe housing shortage, and it built more than 21,000 flats within its first three years.
Centre for Strategic Futures, foresight inside government
Singapore established the Centre for Strategic Futures in 2009 inside the Prime Minister's Office strategy system to study blind spots, run long-term futures research and develop foresight methods.
MAS FinTech Regulatory Sandbox variants
Singapore's Monetary Authority operates three FinTech Regulatory Sandbox variants—Sandbox, Sandbox Express and Sandbox Plus—giving firms distinct routes to test regulated products with real customers under defined safeguards.
Singapore Courts' case-clearance discipline
Singapore's State Courts disposed of 21,816 civil cases against 20,358 filings in 2023, a 107% civil clearance rate; its Community Justice and Tribunals courts recorded a 99% clearance rate in the same year.
Tuaspring desalination partnership, and its collapse
PUB contracted Hyflux's Tuaspring Pte Ltd under a water purchase agreement for Singapore's largest desalination plant, opened in 2013, then terminated the agreement on 17 April 2019 after the operator failed to keep the plant reliably operational, took the plant into public ownership in May 2019 and spent around $80 million on repairs due for completion in mid-2021.
Jobs Support Scheme and the four 2020 Budgets
Singapore's Ministry of Finance introduced the Jobs Support Scheme in the Unity Budget of 18 February 2020, raised and extended it through the Resilience, Solidarity and Fortitude Budgets, the fourth of them presented on 26 May 2020, and disbursed $22.6 billion of wage support from April to December 2020.
PUB drainage programme and the shrinking of flood-prone land
Singapore's drainage authorities, the Drainage Department and later PUB, expanded the national drainage system under a drainage master plan, with a development drainage code from 1976, and reduced flood-prone areas from about 3,200 hectares in the 1970s to less than 25 hectares by 2025, with about $2.5 billion spent on drainage upgrades since 2011.
The same indicator elsewhere
3 deliveries linked to Adults doing digital tasks in other countries.
e.escola, a national laptop-and-broadband push
The European Commission's eSchool case study records more than 1.3 million people requesting laptops and broadband through Portugal's e.escola programme and more than one million laptops delivered in its first two years; the Portuguese government suspended the programme in 2011.
Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan
India's PMGDISHA rural digital-literacy scheme enrolled 73,571,965 people, trained 63,941,718 and certified 47,836,188 by July 2024 through 20 hours of instruction in five digital-task modules.
Puntos México Conectado, national digital learning centres
Mexico's communications ministry operated Puntos México Conectado centres in all 32 states, reporting more than 410,000 enrolled members and over 260,000 course enrolments by June 2017.