Girls aged 16 to 19 in the EU showed stronger digital content creation skills than the general population in 2023, a trend also seen in Cyprus, according to Eurostat.

However, the percentage of girls involved in computer programming remained significantly lower than that of boys across Europe, with Cyprus ranking near the bottom for both genders.

According to an announcement published this week to mark the International Day of Girls in ICT, girls in the EU were far more likely than the general population to carry out a range of digital tasks.

In the three months before the survey, 78.6 per cent copied or moved files between folders, devices or the cloud, 73.4 per cent used word processing software, and 67.7 per cent created files combining text, images or sound.

In Cyprus, the rates were considerably higher – 92.9, 93.1 and 86.5 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, 60.8 per cent of EU girls edited photos, videos or audio, compared with 68.7 per cent in Cyprus.

Nearly half used spreadsheet software (47.3 per cent in the EU, 60.6 per cent in Cyprus), while just 22.4 per cent in the EU – and 26.8 per cent in Cyprus – used advanced spreadsheet functions.

Yet when it came to programming, the gap was striking.

Only 9.9 per cent of girls across the EU wrote code in a programming language.

In Cyprus, the figure dropped to just 1.7 per cent, lower than both the general population (5.1 per cent) and boys of the same age (6.3 per cent).

In fact, girls outperformed boys in the EU in four digital areas: editing multimedia, using word processing software, creating files with varied content, and moving files across platforms.

In Cyprus, they also had higher percentages in downloading programmes or applications, changing settings, and using spreadsheets.

Still, programming remained the area with the widest gender gap.

According to the data, 15.1 per cent of all 16 to 19-year-olds in the EU had written code, but the rate for boys (19.7 per cent) was nearly double that of girls.

This pattern appeared in 24 of the 26 countries surveyed, with the biggest differences recorded in Austria (26.5 points), Croatia (19.6), and Belgium (18.2).

Only Lithuania and Greece saw higher coding rates among girls than boys.