Bermuda has dropped two places in the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2008 e-Readiness rankings from 15th to 17th, but has also increased its score out of 10 from 8.15 to 8.22.

The annual e-readiness ranking of the world's largest economies, which uses a model developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit in co-operation with the IBM Institute for Business Value, also reveals that the US is now top of the table, followed closely by Hong Kong, while digital progress is slowing down in Denmark and other European ICT leaders and the digital divide between the top and lower tiers is continuing to narrow.

The survey also shows that e-readiness continues to advance across the world, with the average e-readiness score of the 70 countries in this year's rankings rising to 6.39 (on a one to 10 scale), up from 6.24 in 2007.

This overall progress, however, masks some back-tracking among a handful of countries, notably within the top 10. After four consecutive years as the world's most e-ready country, Denmark has fallen four places, as has Switzerland. Similarly, Finland has dropped three places and has been replaced in the top 10 by Austria. The United States is now the global e-readiness leader, with a score of 8.95, followed closely by Hong Kong, which has advanced two places.

"The world's most developed digital economies — and many less developed ones — continue to record impressive gains in broadening access to ICT and making digital services available to the population," said Robin Bew, editorial director of the Economist Intelligence Unit. "It is hard work to maintain this progress, however, and even the leaders have much to do to translate these gains into real economic and social benefits."

Since 2000, the Economist Intelligence Unit has published an annual e-readiness ranking, with a country's "e-readiness" is a measure of its e-business environment, a collection of factors that indicate how amenable a market is to Internet-based opportunities. Increasingly, it is also about how individuals and businesses consume digital goods and services.