You can’t always be first — but you should definitely try.
Our winner of hearts this week: Saarland.

Saarland and digitisation are two words you don’t often use in the same sentence. When we talk about digitising the German states, the names Hamburg and Bavaria usually come up. But even though Saarland is overall only mid-table when it comes to digitising government, it has now surprisingly fought its way to first place in one category: digital society.

What does that mean, and why are people in Saarland more digital than the rest of the country? As so often, education makes the difference. Saarland is going all in on digitising its population: among other things, through 6 hours of mandatory computer science for all pupils (the top figure in Germany), more computer science teachers than any other state, the fastest school internet, and free digitisation spaces for young people in Saarbrücken and the larger districts.

Source: Bitkom state index 2026
Image: Benjamin van Keulen for Unsplash

You can find this post on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/janwegener_digitalisierung-bitkom-saarland-activity-7495381554001592321-T7x1?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAF-yDsQBgbICDl3wlRGoCQSZHiHxHemNJR8