Digital Public Services and the Equity Challenge: Evidence from Uruguay

This document examines Uruguayan citizens' experiences with government services, with particular attention to differences by service channel and population group. Uruguay has become a regional leader in government digitalization, enabling more people to complete government transactions faster, at lower cost, and without traveling. Yet ensuring that these benefits reach the entire population equitably remains a challenge. Uruguay has the highest share in the region of people who completed their most recent government transaction partly or entirely through digital channels: 29% did so fully online, the same share that used the in-person channel, while 22% combined both channels. However, as in the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean, the benefits of digital access remain unevenly distributed: only about half of people with primary education or less, and about half of persons with disabilities, used a digital channel for their most recent government transaction. One contributing factor is that only 31% of people with primary education or less feel confident that they can complete government transactions online, a proportion similar to that observed among persons with disabilities. These gaps reflect constraints in connectivity and access to electronic devices, limited awareness of available digital services, and insufficient skills to complete online government transactions. Uruguay's experience therefore mirrors a broader regional pattern (Pombo et al., 2025).