ICT

2016 marks the year when

the international community is
embarking on the implementation
of the 17 Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) and their 169 targets.

FACTS AND The International Telecommunication

Union, given the tremendous
development of ICTs, has a key role

FIGURES to play in facilitating their attainment.

2016
Our new data show that in 2016,
over two-thirds of the population
lives within an area covered by a Brahima Sanou,
mobile broadband network and that Director of the ITU
ICT services continue to become Telecommunication
Development Bureau
more affordable. Despite these
unprecedented opportunities,
more than half of all people are not
yet using the Internet and large
differences in terms of broadband
speeds and quality exist. ITU data
inform public and private-sector
decision makers, and help us
accomplish our mission: to make use
of the full potential of ICTs for the
timely achievement of the SDGs.

Mobile network coverage and evolving technologies

8
n
World populatio
7

Seven billion people (95% of

6 the global population) live in
an area that is covered by a
mobile-cellular network.
5
2G Mobile-broadband networks
Billion people

(3G or above) reach 84% of the

4
global population but only 67%
et users of the rural population.
Intern
3
LTE networks have spread quick-
ly over the last three years and
2 reach almost 4 billion people
today (53% of the global popu-
3G LTE or higher lation), enhancing the quality of
1
Internet use.

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 *

Source: ITU.
Note: * Estimates. Mobile network coverage refers to the population that is covered by a mobile network.
WORLDS OFFLINE
POPULATION, 2016
More than half the worlds population is not using the Internet

CIS
33.4%

Europe
20.9%

Asia & Pacific

58.1%
The Americas
35.0%

Africa Arab States

74.9% 58.4%

Scale: 1 : 1.000.000

Percentage of individuals By end 2016, 3.9 billion people - 53% of the worlds
NOT using the Internet population is not using the Internet.

0 - 25 In the Americas and the CIS regions, about one third of the
population is offline.
26 - 50
51 - 75 While almost 75% of people in Africa are non-users, only
21% of Europeans are offline.
76 - 100
In Asia and the Pacific and the Arab States, the percentage of
the population that is not using the Internet is very similar:
58.1 and 58.4%, respectively.

Note: The map is based on 2016 estimates. The base map for this infographic is based on the UN map database of the United Nation Cartographic Section.

Source: ITU.
MIND THE DIGITAL GENDER GAP
Internet penetration rate for men and women, 2016*

Africa 21.9
28.4
36.9
Internet penetration rates are
Arab States 46.1 higher for men than for women
Asia & Pacific 39.5
47.5
in all regions of the world.
The Americas 64.4
65.6
CIS 65.0
68.5
Europe 76.3
82.0

Developed 80.0
82.3
World 44.9
51.1
Developing 37.4
45.0
LDC 12.5
18.0

Female Male

Source: ITU. Note: * Estimates. Penetration rates in this chart refer to the
number of of women/men that use the Internet, as a percentage of the
respective total female/male population. CIS refers to: Commonwealth
of Independent States.

Internet user gender gap (%), 2013 and 2016*

30.9
29.9

23.0
20.7 20.0
19.2
17.4 16.8
16.9 15.8
12.2
11.0
9.4
6.9 7.5
5.8
5.1
1.8 2.8
-0.4

Africa Arab Asia & Europe CIS The Developed World Developing LDC
States Pacific Americas

2013 The global Internet user gender

2016 gap grew from 11% in 2013 to
12% in 2016. The gap remains
large in the worlds Least Devel-
oped Countries (LDCs) - at 31%.
Source: ITU. Note: * Estimates. The gender gap represents the difference
between the Internet user penetration rates for males and females In 2016, the regional gender
relative to the Internet user penetration rate for males, expressed as a gap is largest in Africa (23%) and
percentage. CIS refers to: Commonwealth of Independent States.
smallest in the Americas (2%).
THE DIGITAL DIVIDE IN 2016
Percentage of individuals using the Internet

79.1 81.0
Close to one out of two
65.0 66.6 people (47%) in the world are
using the Internet but only
47.1 one out of seven people in
% 41.6 41.9 the LDCs.
40.1
Developed regions are home
The Americas

Asia & Pacific

25.1 to one billion Internet users,

Developing
Arab States

Developed
15.2 compared to 2.5 billion users
Europe

in the developing world.

World
Africa

LDCs
CIS

Percentage of households with Internet access

84.0 83.8
Almost two-thirds of house-
holds in the Americas are
67.8
connected, compared with 64.4
half of all households globally.
52.3
Almost 1 billion households % 45.7 46.4
41.1
in the world have Internet ac-
cess, of which 230 million are
The Americas

Asia & Pacific

in China, 60 million in India

Developing
Arab States

Developed
and 20 million in the worlds 15.4
11.1
Europe

World
48 LDCs.
Africa

LDCs
CIS

Mobile-broadband subscriptions

90.3
In developing countries, the
76.6 78.2 number of mobile-broadband
Per 100 inhabitants

subscriptions continues to
grow at double digit rates,
53.0 reaching a penetration rate of
47.6 49.4
42.6 40.9 close to 41%.
The Americas

Source: ITU. Note: Data are estimates. CIS refers to: Commonwealth of Independent States.
Asia & Pacific

29.3 The total number of mo-

Developing
Arab States

Developed

19.4 bile-broadband subscriptions

Europe

is expected to reach 3.6 billion

World
Africa

LDCs

by end 2016.
CIS

Fixed-broadband subscriptions

Fixed-broadband penetration
remains at below 1% in Africa
Per 100 inhabitants

and the LDCs.

Strong growth in China is
driving fixed broadband in
Asia and the Pacific, where
The Americas

30.0
Asia & Pacific

fixed-broadband penetration 30.1

Developing
Arab States

Developed

is expected to surpass 10% by 18.9

15.4
Europe

end 2016. 10.5 11.9

World
Africa

8.2
LDCs

4.8
CIS

0.7 0.8
ICT PRICES
By end 2015, 83 developing countries had achieved
the Broadband Commissions affordability target

100 In 2011, the Broadband Developed Five LDCs achieved the Broad-
Commission for Digital Developing (excl. LDCs) band Commission target, but in
90 Development set the following the majority of the worlds poor-
target: LDCs
80
est countries broadband remains
unaffordable.
By 2015, entry-level broadband
70
services should be made affordable
Number of countries

45
60 in developing countries through
adequate regulation and market
50 forces (amounting to less than 5%
1 of average monthly income).
40

30

20 43 35
7
2 1
10 1
7 12
5 8 9
0 4 5
0-2 2-5 5-8 8-10 10-20 20-30 >30

2015 broadband prices as a % of GNI p.c.

Source: ITU. Note: Broadband prices refer to the most affordable service:
either fixed or mobile broadband.

Fixed- and mobile-broadband prices, PPP$, 2015 (left) and price of 1GB
computer-based mobile-broadband services as a percentage of GNI p.c. (right)

26.7 35
Mobile 15.9 30
Broadband 30.8
39.9 25
As a % of GNI p.c.

20

56.3 15
Fixed 27.8 10
Broadband 67.3
5
134.0
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 2013 2014 2015
2015 broadband prices in PPP$
Mobile-broadband services have become
World World
more affordable than fixed-broadband
Developed Developed services. By end 2015, average mobile-
Developing Developing broadband prices corresponded to 5.5% of
LDCs LDCs GNI p.c. worldwide.
The average price of a basic fixed-broadband
plan is more than twice as high as the
average price of a comparable mobile-
broadband plan.
In LDCs, fixed-broadband services are on
Source: ITU. Note: Based on simple averages including data for 159 economies average more than three times as expensive
(left) and 147 economies (right). Prices are based on 1GB cap. as mobile-broadband services.
BROADBAND SPEEDS
Large differences in fixed-broadband penetration and speed persist

In early 2016, three out of four

Developed fixed-broadband subscriptions had
advertised speeds of 10 Mbit/s and
above in the developed countries,
compared with two out of four in
the developing countries.
World
In the LDCs, overall fixed-broad-
band penetration remains very low
and only 7% of fixed-broadband
subscriptions are advertised at
Developing
speeds above 10 Mbit/s.

LDC

0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Fixed-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, by speed, 2015

Data on broadband by speed not available

>10 Mbit/s
>2 to <10 Mbit/s
>256 kbit/s to <2 Mbit/s

Source: ITU.

Fixed-broadband subscriptions by speed, selected countries, 2015

France Korea (Rep.) Germany United States + Japan Italy

Russian
Federation China UAE Brazil Mexico Colombia

>10 Mbit/s
>2 Mbit/s to <10 Mbit/s
Armenia Malaysia Venezuela Morocco Namibia Zimbabwe >256 kbit/s to <2 Mbit/s

The size of the circle

represents the
fixed-broadband
penetration

Source: ITU. Note: + 2014 data.

 M2M, IoT AND BANDWIDTH
Internet bandwidth remains unequally distributed across the world

200,000
Europe 131
180,000
The Americas 46
160,000
CIS 24
140,000
Arab States 15
120,000
Gbit/s

Asia & Pacific 13

100,000
Africa 6
80,000

60,000
Developed 93
40,000
Developing 13
20,000
LDCs 1
0
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
kbit/s per inhabitant, 2015

Africa
CIS By early 2016, total international Internet bandwidth had reached
Arab States 185000 Gbit/s, up from 30000 in 2008.
Asia & Pacific Africa has the lowest international connectivity of all regions: there
The Americas is twice as much bandwidth per inhabitant available in Asia and
Europe the Pacific, four times as much in the CIS region, eight times as
much in the Americas and more than twenty times as much in
Europe.
Lack of international connectivity is a major bottleneck in the Inter-
Source: ITU. CIS refers to: Commonwealth of Independent States. net infrastructure of LDCs.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is in its early stages

Sweden Based on available data, there were 22

New Zealand mobile-cellular subscriptions for each
Norway
machine-to-machine (M2M) subscrip-
tion worldwide at the beginning of
Finland
2015.
France
Denmark
The countries with the highest M2M
penetration rates are highly industrial-
United States
ized, advanced economies, including
Ireland the Northern European countries of
Belgium Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.
Bulgaria
Estonia
Italy
Slovakia
Spain
Luxembourg
South Africa
Germany
Korea (Rep.)
Czech Republic
Iceland
0 10 20 30 40 50
Source: ITU. Note: Data refer to early 2015.
M2M subscriptions per 100 mobile-cellular subscriptions
ITU DATA
VISUALISATION
TOOL
Results of the ICT
Development Index, ITUs
key benchmarking tool
Key ICT indicators
Global, regional and
national comparisons

www.itu.int/MIS2015

ITU 14th World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS),

21-23 November 2016, Botswana
www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/events/wtis2016/default.aspx

ITU Measuring the Information Society Report 2015

www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/mis2015.aspx

ITU Yearbook of Statistics 2015

www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/yb2015.aspx

ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database

www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/wtid.aspx

For more information:

ICT Data and Statistics Division
Telecommunication Development Bureau
International Telecommunication Union
Place des Nations
1211 Geneva 20 - Switzerland
indicators@itu.int
www.itu.int/ict

Printed in Switzerland
Geneva, June 2016
International Telecommunication Union