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Add to Preferred SourcesNew data released by ITU reveal that in most countries worldwide women are still trailing men in benefiting from the transformational power of digital technologies.
Measuring digital development: Facts and figures 2019, the first publication in ITU’s new Measuring digital development series, estimates that over half the total global female population (52 percent) is still not using the Internet, compared to 42 percent of all men.
Overall, the proportion of all women using the Internet globally is 48 percent, against 58 percent of all men. More men than women use the Internet in every region of the world except the Americas, which has near-parity.
ITU data show that while the digital gender gap has been shrinking in the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe, it is growing in Africa, the Arab States and the Asia-Pacific region. It is widest in developing countries, especially the Least Developed Countries.
“ITU’s Measuring digital development reports are a powerful tool to better understand connectivity issues, including the growing digital gender divide, at a time when over half of the world’s population is using the Internet,” said Houlin Zhao, ITU Secretary General. “ITU statistics help policy-makers and regulators make informed policy decisions to connect the unconnected and track progress at the global level.”
ITU data confirm that Internet use continues to grow globally, with 4.1 billion people now using the Internet, or 53.6% of the global population.
However, an estimated 3.6 billion people remain offline, with the majority of the unconnected living in the Least Developed Countries where an average of just two out of every ten people are online.
“Connecting the 3.6 billion people still offline to the power of digital technologies must become one of our most urgent development priorities,” said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau. “Multi-stakeholder collaboration will be key to making universal and meaningful connectivity a reality for all. It will require targeted efforts to lower the cost of broadband and innovative policies to finance network rollout to unconnected populations.”
Internet use in developed countries is nearing saturation levels, with close to 87 percent of individuals online. Europe is the region with the highest Internet use (82.5 percent), while Africa is the region with the lowest (28.2 percent).
By the end of 2019, ITU estimates that 57 percent of households globally will have Internet access at home. However, the number of households with a computer at home is only expected to rise by about one percentage point – to 49.7 percent – between 2018 and 2019. Slowing growth in domestic computer ownership is accounted for by the fact that in many countries computers are no longer needed for home Internet access, with people simply connecting over smartphones.
Read and download the report: Measuring digital development.
Original source: ITU
Published on 05 November 2019