The digital transformation in the Spanish economy continues to advance, now contributing 21% of GDP, a five-percentage-point increase between 2013 and 2021. Starting this year, 2025, this percentage will stagnate, reflecting the fact that the pace of digital transformation has kept pace with strong economic growth in recent years.
This brings the total digital value added to €279 billion, half of which is allocated to the economies of Madrid and Catalonia. This data is taken from the report “The Digital Economy in Spain: Developments and Challenges by Region and Sector 2025,” presented by the Cotec Innovation Foundation and the Valencia Institute of Economic Research (IVIE) in Málaga.
High Regional Concentration
Digital value added is much more concentrated than economic activity overall. The phenomenon is that half of Spain’s digital gross value added is generated in Madrid and Catalonia, nearly 10 points above their combined economic weight. Madrid contributes 28.3% of Spain’s digital gross value added, while Catalonia accounts for 20.6%. It is followed by Andalusia (10.9%), the Valencian Community (8%), and the Basque Country (6.2%).
Regarding the weight of digital economic activity within regional economies (digital density), Madrid is the most digital region in Spain, with nearly a third (30.3%) of its digital gross value added, while Catalonia and the Basque Country account for nearly a quarter. (22.8% and 22.1%, respectively). In the remaining countries, the digital transformation penetration rate remains lower than the Spanish average of 21%.
In short, progress in digital transformation has been widespread across all autonomous communities, although a widening gap has been identified between them.
Most Digitized Sectors
The progress made by digitalization is now across the entire economy. Twenty of the twenty-one productive sectors increased their digital intensity (defined as the weight of digital value added compared to the sector’s value added) between 2011 and 2023. The only exception is the financial sector, which began this process before the rest.
The most digitized sectors are information and communications (with a digital intensity of 74%), professional activities (40%), and machinery and capital goods manufacturing (40%). At the bottom of the list are real estate (2.6%), agriculture and fishing (3.5%), and hospitality (6.5%).
It is worth noting that only five of the 21 sectors account for nearly 70% of digital economic activity in Spain.
Defense, education, and health (17.5%), professional activities (16.9%), information and communications (13.4%), trade and repair (11.1%), and financial and insurance activities (8.4%).
Salaries of Digital Specialists
Digital employment grew by 23% between 2011 and 2023, double the rate of change in total employment (11%). The number of digital specialists is growing significantly (+39%). By 2023, Spain will already have 4.1 million digital workers (2.1 million digital specialists and 2 million non-specialized digital workers).
There are difficulties in recruiting digital specialists outside of the leading regions and sectors, which offer the best salaries. However, some communities and sectors are reportedly making significant efforts to achieve this goal.
In this regard, the report includes, as a new feature, an analysis of the salary costs of digital specialists, as well as the salary premiums (or differences) of these specialists compared to other workers.
Digital specialists are particularly well-paid. They enjoy a 43% wage premium compared to the average worker (although this premium has decreased by 7 percentage points since 2011).
However, this wage premium is not uniform across the country, with a range that is highest in the Canary Islands (57%) and lowest in the Region of Murcia (20%).
The study allows for the classification of autonomous communities and cities into four quartiles, based on their relative position relative to the Spanish average in two variables: the digital wage premium (the difference between the salaries of specialists and the average worker) and the total digital wage cost.
For its part, the Madrid Region stands out as the region with the best salaries for digital specialists (with an average salary of €61,297), although its salary premium is lower than that of Spain as a whole. Catalonia and the Basque Country are in a similar situation.
There will be a group of three autonomous communities (Galicia, La Rioja, and Castilla-La Mancha) with lower overall salaries for digital specialists, but a digital salary premium higher than the average for the Spanish economy.
Finally, a wide range of regions (made up of the remaining ten autonomous communities) are characterized by salaries and salary bonuses that are lower than the Spanish average and are therefore less able to attract digital talent.
Project Description:
This research measures the contribution of digital transformation to GDP and employment using an innovative methodology based on national accounting. The system used covers 21 productive sectors across all autonomous communities.
