Ireland has moved one place higher in the latest Digital Economy and Society Index, which aims to track the digital competitiveness of countries in the European Union.
Ireland is now ranked fifth in the index, boosted by SMEs' adoption of ecommerce in the past year as well as an improved take-up of high-speed broadband and online public services.
It marks a continued improvement in the country's ranking, and compares to a 10th place position in 2017.
"Ireland either improved or maintained its performance in 20 indicators within the Index and was above the EU average in 23 of the indicators," said Minister of State for Digital Robert Troy. "This is a hugely impressive achievement and a clear indication that Ireland is well positioned to embrace the opportunities that the Digital Age is already bringing."
Meanwhile, a separate survey by cloud firm Equinix claims that the pandemic has prompted Irish firms to expand their digital infrastructure at a far faster pace than those in other countries.
Its latest Global Interconnection Index shows that Irish firms are investing in digital 26% faster than the European, Middle Eastern and African average.
It claims that Irish firms have significantly reduced the time required to deploy better digital infrastructure. It said that would see 58% more data being transferred between organisations in 2024 than was the case in 2019.
The survey found that Ireland's healthcare and life sciences sector now has the third fastest rate of growth in connectivity in the EMEA.
Meanwhile the manufacturing, cloud and IT industries was growing at the fifth fastest rate in the region.
