Identifying and understanding digital exclusion: a mixed-methods study

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic profile of the total sample and digitally excluded respondents.

Demographic variables	Characteristics	Total sample frequency (%), n = 9181	Digitally excluded (%), n = 1130
Gender Age groups Ethnic groups Marital status Educational qualifications Employment status Individual disability Household disability Household size Tenure Household income	Female Male Other <20 20-39 40-59 60-79 80> White Mixed/multiple ethnic groups Asian/British Asian Black/African/Caribbean/Black British Other Ethnic groups Single Married, civil partnership, co-habiting Separated (but still legally married) Divorced Widowed No qualifications GCSEs/O Levels or equivalent A levels or equivalent First degree (e.g. BA, BSc) Postgraduate or professional qualification (e.g. qualified teacher) Employed Full-Time Employed Part-Time Unemployed Student Self-employed Retired Unpaid/Voluntary work Unable to work Yes No Yes No 1 member 2 members 3 members 4 or more members Owner Renter Other Less than £20K £20K – £40K £40 K – £60K £60 K – £80K More than £80K	5537 (60.3) 3575 (38.9) 9 (0.1) 7 (0.1) 794 (9.0) 2275 (25.8) 4727 (53.7) 1007 (11.7) 8904 (97.4) 130 (1.4) 73 (0.8) 11 (0.1) 22 (0.2) 1136 (12.5) 5611 (61.1) 172 (1.9) 975 (10.6) 1213 (13.2) 991 (10.8) 1848 (20.1) 1774 (19.3) 1416 (15.4) 2761 (30.1) 2221 (24.2) 1083 (11.8) 147 (1.6) 43 (0.5) 308 (3.4) 5,071 (55.2) 77 (0.8) 158 (1.7) 3233 (35.2) 5718 (62.3) 3793 (41.3) 5073 (55.3) 2880 (31.4) 4348 (47.4) 999 (10.9) 842 (9.2) 8032 (87.5) 979 (10.7) 122 (1.3) 2232 (24.3) 2754 (30.0) 1326 (14.4) 744 (8.1) 649 (7.1)	698 (61.8) 420 (37.2) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 3 (0.3) 59 (5.2) 592 (52.3) 392 (34.7) 1,100 (97.3) 11 (1.0) 8 (0.7) 0 (0.0) 2 (0.2) 144 (12.7) 398 (35.2) 20 (1.8) 160 (14.2) 395 (35.0) 408 (36.1) 299 (26.5) 136 (12.0) 30 (2.6) 146 (13.0) 42 (3.7) 39 (3.5) 20 (1.8) 0 (0.0) 20 (1.8) 949 (84.0) 8 (0.7) 38 (3.4) 622 (55.0) 451 (40.0) 645 (57.1) 399 (35.3) 652 (59.3) 399 (36.3) 40 (3.6) 9 (0.8) 865 (76.5) 212 (18.8) 53 (4.7) 526 (46.5) 228 (20.2) 30 (2.7) 9 (0.8) 4 (0.4)

Note: Frequencies and percentages may not add up to the total due to missing values and rounding.

Figure 1. Frequency distribution of respondents who self-reported ‘no digital access’.

Figure 2. Frequency distribution of respondents who self-reported ‘no digital use’.

Figure 3. Frequency distribution of respondents who self-reported ‘no confidence in using digital tools’.

Figure 4. Frequency distribution of respondents who self-reported ‘very poor digital skills’.

Table 2. Logistic regression models developed to understand the key determinants of being digitally excluded in the borough.

	Model 1 tested socio-demographic variables as predictors for digital exclusion				Model 2 added digital attitude variables to the regression equation
	β	S.E.	p-value	Exp(β)	β	S.E.	p-value	Exp(β)
Socio-demographic variables
Gender^a	0.261	0.112	0.020*	1.298	0.148	0.139	0.284	1.160
Age (in years)	−0.087	0.008	0.001**	0.917	−0.042	0.009	0.001**	0.959
Educational level^b			0.001**				0.001**
No qualifications	−1.433	0.160	0.001**	0.239	−0.846	0.199	0.001**	0.429
GCSEs or equivalent	−0.767	0.160	0.001**	0.464	−0.477	0.195	0.014*	0.621
Vocational education	−0.542	0.179	0.002**	0.582	−0.261	0.217	0.230	0.770
Other qualifications	−0.541	0.219	0.013*	0.582	−0.153	0.267	0.566	0.858
A levels or equivalent	0.072	0.278	0.796	1.075	−0.191	0.329	0.562	0.826
Household income level^c			0.001**				0.056
Less than £20K	−2.419	1.025	0.018*	0.089	−1.738	1.046	0.176	0.023
£20 k – £40k	−1.975	1.019	0.050*	0.139	−1.395	1.035	0.248	0.033
£40 k – £60k	−1.320	1.033	0.201	0.267	−1.085	1.051	0.338	0.043
£60 k – £80k	−1.263	1.087	0.245	0.283	−1.107	1.111	0.331	0.037
Employment status^d			0.324				0.768
Employed Full-Time	0.757	0.405	0.061	2.133	0.195	0.507	1.216	0.450
Employed Part-Time	0.906	0.408	0.026*	2.474	0.410	0.514	1.506	0.550
Unemployed	0.583	0.555	0.294	1.792	0.695	0.687	2.003	0.521
Self-employed	0.447	0.494	0.365	1.564	0.247	0.612	1.281	0.386
Retired	0.864	0.370	0.020*	2.372	0.276	0.476	1.318	0.518
Unpaid/Voluntary work	1.089	0.662	0.100	2.972	1.160	0.767	3.188	0.709
Tenure groups^e			0.012*				0.109
Renter	−0.470	0.159	0.003**	0.625	−0.423	0.201	0.655	0.442
Other	−0.001	0.379	0.998	0.999	−0.074	0.475	0.929	0.366
Household size (in numbers)	0.362	0.102	0.001**	1.436	0.408	0.120	1.504	1.188
Aged between 18-59 (yes)^f	−0.476	0.189	0.012*	0.621	−0.449	0.231	0.638	0.406
Household disability (yes)^g	−0.465	0.112	0.001**	0.628	−0.356	0.138	0.700	0.534
Local primary care areas^h			0.019*				0.071
Area 1	−0.442	0.158	0.005**	0.643	−0.385	0.192	0.045*	0.680
Area 2	−0.209	0.161	0.193	0.811	−0.075	0.195	0.701	0.928
Area 3	−0.423	0.171	0.014*	0.655	−0.392	0.210	0.062	0.676
Digital attitude variables
Privacy/security concerns^i					0.445	0.159	0.005**	1.561
Attending digital classes^j					0.058	0.341	0.864	1.060
Willing to use digital tools^k					3.325	0.147	0.001**	27.801
Believing COVID impact^l					0.777	0.141	0.001**	2.175
Constant	10.180	1.196	0.001	26,369.59	4.010	1.321	0.002	55.145
N	6863				6315
R^2 Cox–Snell	0.128				0.235
R^2 Nagelkerke	0.308				0.568
Hosmer and Lemeshow statistic	4.043		0.853		7.146		0.521
Classification (%)	92.7				94.4

Notes: The reference categories selected in the model were: ^afemale, ^buniversity degrees or equivalent, ^cmore than £80 K, ^dunable to work, ^ehomeowners (with or without a mortgage), ^fno household member aged between 18-59, ^ghouseholds who do not have a disability (or health conditions),^hthose who reside in postcode area 4, ⁱthose who do not have privacy/security concerns when online, ^jthose who have not attended any digital classes in last 5 years, ^kthose who do not willing to use digital tools in daily life, ^lthose who do not believe COVID pandemic pushed them to use digital tools more often. The category of ‘students’ was excluded from the analysis due to the small amount of data.

*Significant at the 5% level.

**Significant at the 1% level.

Table 3. Characteristics of the focus groups.

Focus group	Characteristics	Number of participants (M/F)	Mean age (range)
Deaf community	Individual disability	3 (2/1)	47 (25–66)
Women’s group	Mothers experienced domestic violence	4 (0/4)	43 (30–54)
Youth group	Young, unemployed men	3 (3/0)	20 (20–21)
Total	NA	10 (5/5)	36.7 (20–66)