Bonn, 31 August 2026 – Germany is making progress in digitalisation. However, when compared with other European countries, Germany is progressing more slowly than other EU Member States and now ranks towards the bottom of the table. In the new Bitkom DESI Index 2026, Germany scores 51.1 points, placing it only 17th out of 27 EU Member States. Compared with the previous year, the country has therefore dropped three places.
There is a particularly significant need to catch up when it comes to the digitalisation of public administration. In this area, Germany ranks only 22nd. The figures confirm what linqi experiences time and again in its day-to-day work: the will to digitalise is present in many places. However, there is often a lack of tools to implement this and digitise processes in practice.
For the new DESI Index, Bitkom e. V. has compiled 44 indicators from the European Commission’s ‘2030 Digital Decade Report’ to produce a European comparison. Germany has improved its overall score from 50.1 to 51.1 points compared with the previous year, but has fallen in the ranking from 14th to 17th place. Denmark leads the digitalisation comparison with 76.4 points, followed by Finland and the Netherlands.
Bitkom President Dr Ralf Wintergerst summarises the need for action quite clearly:
“17th place cannot be Germany’s target. This calls for simultaneous action from federal and state governments, the business sector and educational institutions.” – Dr Ralf Wintergerst, President of Bitkom e. V.
In the area of digitalisation of public administration, Germany ranks only 22nd out of 27 countries, dropping another place compared with the previous year. The gap is particularly evident when it comes to pre-filled forms: Germany scores 52.0 points here, whilst the EU average stands at 75.9 points.
This figure makes it clear that digital administration must not stop at online forms. With linqi, existing information is also utilised in downstream administrative processes. Processing steps can be linked together and largely automated.
With the no-code platform linqi, public authorities can map out and automate their internal processes themselves – without any programming knowledge. The process knowledge from the respective specialist departments can be put to immediate use in digitalisation. Forms, checks, approvals, responsibilities and other processing steps can be combined into end-to-end digital workflows.
“The fact that Germany ranks 22nd in digital public administration cannot be good enough for a country as innovative as Germany. Especially when you consider how much time and resources public authorities invest daily in processes that could be organised more simply and digitised quickly. In discussions with public authorities, we repeatedly find that the willingness to change is there. What is often missing is a tool that enables specialist departments to get started themselves. With linqi, they can tackle their processes independently and simplify workflows step by step.” – Jörg Sager, CEO of linqi
Bitkom President Dr Ralf Wintergerst has clear ideas on how Germany can make faster progress with digitalisation. Among other things, he calls for faster digital projects, less bureaucracy, digital identities and a more consistent implementation of the once-only principle. Citizens and businesses should, where possible, only have to provide data once and be able to access administrative services more easily online.
For this to work in day-to-day administration, solutions are needed that adapt to existing structures, integrate with existing systems and can also be used outside traditional IT departments. linqi meets these requirements.
In a 30-minute live demo, we’ll use specific real-world examples to show you what’s possible.
After a preliminary discussion of approx. 30 minutes, we will automate your process free of charge and demonstrate linqi to you using your own process in a live demo via video call (approx. 60 minutes) to clarify any open questions.
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