internet usage

From the AFRIK-IT mailing list I learned about this new post by Richard Heeks which, among other interesting insights, provides particularly striking (but not surprising) charts comparing mobile and Internet penetration in rich and poor countries. Richard provides the data he used to generate them via a shared google spreadsheet to encourage others to remix and analyze them to draw further conclusions. I like this approach!

Worldwide mobile, Internet and broadband data for 1998-2009 is now available online at: http://ict4dblog.wordpress.com/tag/ict4d-statistics/

Based on ITU data, this provides a compiled and cleaned-up spreadsheet of data; charts comparing technology penetration levels in countries grouped by income; 'digital gap' charts comparing richest vs. poorest countries; and 'digital lag' data showing how many years behind the richest countries are the poorest countries.

African internet usage has grown by a staggering 882 % over the past 7 years, second only to the Middle East.  However the percentage of the population with an internet connection is still the lowest globally at 4.7%. [the table does not explain whether the % refers to numbers having internet at home or those having access to the internet.]