Nearly one in four UK adults do not have basic online skills, and some regions of the country are excluded from the digital world almost entirely, according to a new report.
According to the survey, people in London, Scotland and East Anglia were the most capable online, while parts of Wales were among the most digitally excluded. The research was combined with other social factors - including education, income and health - to create a heatmap of digital exclusion for the UK.
Conwy in Wales and the Scottish Highlands were among the areas ranked highest for exclusion, according to the results.
Baroness Martha Lane-Fox, founder of Lastminute.com and chairwoman of digital skills charity Go ON UK, who carried out the research, said that the lack of digital literacy was hurting the country.
"We should be striving to be the most digitally forward nation. I think that's going to be essential - the internet is not going to be less pronounced, it is going to get more.
"The fact that millions of adults cannot do four things online we deem as the lowest level of entry to the internet not only holds them back, but also holds the country back. I would argue that's partly why we have the productivity challenges we do. The people who can benefit most from these things are also the most excluded."
Those taking part were asked about five basic online skills: managing information, communicating, transacting, problem-solving and creating, and while 89% could use a search engine, 27% could not buy or install an app. Adults in London were the most likely to complete all five sections, with 84% completing each of them, followed by East Anglia and Scotland (81%). Wales had the lowest completion rate - 61%.
Go ON UK chief executive Rachel Neaman said: "What our heatmap shows is that there is no single cause of digital exclusion, and therefore no one-size-fits-all solution either.
"Whilst Scotland scores low overall in terms of infrastructure, it has the highest levels of basic digital skills of all the four UK nations. In Manchester, nearly 80% of adults have all five basic digital skills, but only one-third have used them in the past three months."
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