ITU releases annual global ICT data and ICT Development Index country rankings

The International Telecommunication Union released its flagship annual Measuring the Information Society Report reveals that 3.2 billion people are now online, representing 43.4 percent of the global population, while mobile-cellular subscriptions have reached almost 7.1 billion worldwide, with over 95 percent of the global population now covered by a mobile-cellular signal. The report also notes that all 167 economies included in the ITU’s ICT Development Index (IDI) improved their IDI values between 2010 and 2015 -- meaning that levels of information and communication technology (ICT) access, use and skills continue to improve all around the world.

More people online than ever before; but growth slows: Latest data show that growth in Internet use has slowed down, however, posting 6.9 percent global growth in 2015, after 7.4 percent growth in 2014. Nonetheless, the number of Internet users in developing countries has almost doubled in the past five years (2010-2015), with two thirds of all people online now living in the developing world.

Mobile-network coverage and reaching the last half billion: Over 95 percent of the global population is now covered by mobile-cellular services, meaning that there are still an estimated 350 million people worldwide who live in places which are still out of reach of a mobile network -- a figure that has dropped from 450 million a year ago. But while 89 percent of the world’s urban population is now covered by a 3G network, only 29 percent of the world’s 3.4 billion people living in rural areas benefit from 3G coverage.

In 2015, the Republic of Korea is ranked at the top of ITU’s ICT Development Index (IDI), a composite measurement that ranks 167 countries according to their level of ICT access, use and skills. Republic of Korea is closely followed by Denmark and Iceland, in second and third place. The IDI top 30 ranking includes countries from Europe and high-income nations from other regions including Australia, Bahrain, Barbados, Canada, Hong Kong (China), Japan, Macao (China), New Zealand, Singapore and the United States. Almost all countries surveyed improved their IDI ranking in 2015.