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Digital divide is one of the major problems of Information Society. It is linked with others concerns such as poverty and social exclusion (Korupp & Szydlik, 2005; Novo-Corti, Varela-Candamio, & Garcia-Alvarez, 2014).
There are three key points that have to be into account in the design of public policies to reduce digital divide: the infrastructure, linked with technological gap, the possibility of access, related with economic barriers and the knowledge to access, linked with education barrier (International Telecommunication Union, 2013) (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Use and development of ICT. Source: Adapted from Measuring The Information Society 2013 (International Telecommunication Union, 2013)
Supranational institutions are involved in boosting ITC implementation, because they are aware of their importance for social and economic welfare. That is the case of United Nations (International Telecommunication Union, 2013) or the European Digital Agenda (European Union, 2010) .This goal is related with several public policies that should be attended (See Table 1).
Table 1. Public policies involved in breaking the digital divide
| Infrastructure (technological gap) | Country infrastructure | Economic Development |
| Possibility of access (economic barrier) | Household income | Employment
Social protection |
| Knowledge to access (education barrier) | Individual education | Education |
To afford this matter is necessary to relate de issue to a specific country or group of homogenous countries, because there are significant differences between them. Firstly, we analyzed the European Union Countries differences in ICT, towards a cluster analysis, in order to classify them attending the level of ICT infrastructure development.
Secondly we focus on Spain situation and its relative position in the European Union, and study the major key points of it through the household reasons not to have Internet Access, taking into account socio-economics variables, as a key point that can be help to understand the relative situation of Spain in the European Union related with ICT and to elaborate suitable public policies to reduce digital divide.