This year's E-Government Survey placed Poland in 47th position, following on from 45th in 2010 and 33rd in 2008.

The study considers the degree to which countries' online presences are “the conduit for service flow from government to citizen and consequently a reflection of attention to governance processes.”

The UN survey focuses on “scope and quality of online services, development status of telecommunication infrastructure, and inherent human capital.”

Poland fared relatively well in the sphere of evaluating human capital, but was at its worst in the field of infrastructure.

The latter includes access to broadband high-speed internet, as well as e-participation, which takes in interaction with citizens on the web, as well as e-consultations and e-elections.

Overall, the top five ranked countries were South Korea, Holland, the United Kingdom, Denmark and the USA.

Poland's drop in the rankings comes in spite of considerable EU investment programmes in this field.

However, internet specialist Jan Gorski told the Polish Press Agency that on an optimistic note, the creation of Poland's Ministry of Administration and Digitalisation in November 2011 is a positive step.