Digitalization can transform social inequality between urban and rural population into a digital divide. This issue in the “city–village” context is not given due attention by scholars and is mainly limited to the country level. Interregional inequality in scientific publications is considered, as a rule, outside of this context. The study seeks to eliminate this gap. The aim is to identify features, trends and quantitative parameters of digital inequality (divide) between urban and rural population at the national and interregional level and identify ways to address the issues that arise. The tasks are to establish trends in the formation of a digital divide in the levels of Internet access and digital competence of users, in obtaining state and municipal services and ordering goods/services; to assess the reasons for the rural population’s refusal to use the Internet and identify ways to solve this problem. The study was based on a combination of calculation of coefficients of variation and grouping of regions. We used the data of the federal statistical observation. Results: the hypothesis was confirmed that there are trends at the national level to reduce the gap in Internet access, the growth of the gap in the level of users’ digital competence and the use of digital technology; we found out the presence of a positive trend toward reducing the interregional gap in obtaining public and municipal services via the Internet and its growth in the implementation of orders of goods/services; we put forward measures to fulfill the needs of the rural population in using the Internet, increase the level of their digital skills; we conclude that it is necessary to provide budget support for socially vulnerable families when connecting to the Internet, to establish social tariffs for low-income households; mechanisms of public-private partnership and support for initiatives of local communities are proposed aimed at increasing high-speed Internet coverage in rural areas. Further study of the digital divide requires in-depth sociological research and taking into consideration the data from mobile operators and Internet service providers
Keywords
digitalization, digital divide, type of settlement, region, Internet, households, users’ digital competencies