There are 3.9 billion people in the world that are still not using the internet today, with six nations including China and India accounting for 55% of the total global population still offline.
These are among the findings of the 2016 edition of The State of Broadband report released recently by the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development.
The four other nations with the most unconnected people were Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria.
The report suggests that targeted efforts in just a few key markets could help enormously in redressing the gaping ‘digital divide’ between those who are online and those still offline.
“There is a large body of economic evidence for the role of affordable broadband connectivity as a vital enabler of economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection,” said ITU secretary-general Houlin Zhao, who serves as co-vice chair of the commission with UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova.
The Commission argues that if today’s near-universal basic mobile phone access could be converted to high-speed mobile broadband access, mobile phones could serve as a major accelerator of development, driving rapid progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The broadband report is optimistic about the potential of mobile broadband, with 165 countries now having deployed ‘4G’ high-speed mobile networks.
“Broadband technologies can be powerful development multipliers,” Bokova added, “but this requires combined investments in access and in skills and in education. This is about opening new paths to create and share knowledge. It is about enhancing freedom of expression and about widening learning opportunities, especially for girls and women. This is about developing content that is relevant, local and multilingual.”
The report confirms that progress in the 48 UN-designated Least Developed Countries has been encouraging, with the Commission’s target of 15% of the LDC population online expected to be reached by the end of this year.
This year’s figures show that, once again, the top ten developing countries for household internet penetration are all located in Asia or the Middle East. The Republic of Korea continues to have the world’s highest household Internet penetration, with 98.8% of homes connected; Qatar (96%) and United Arab Emirates (95%) rank second and third, respectively.
