The digital divide has not gone away
by Vic Sutton*
The digital divide is still very much with us.
In the USA, according to the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, one in five adults still does not use the Internet.
To quote:
“Senior citizens, those who prefer to take our interviews in Spanish rather than English, adults with less than a high school education, and those living in households earning less than $30,000 per year are the least likely adults to have Internet access.”
Why do people not access the Internet? The reasons are mixed. Some people just do not have broadband access (see the National Broadband Map at http://www.broadbandmap.gov). This is a problem in rural communities, in particular.
Some cannot afford a subscription to broadband service.
And others simply do not get around to it.
Mobile phones do appear to have made a difference. You no longer have to have a computer and DSL line to access the Internet.
To quote from dotMobi, “As of the end of 2011, there were 6 billion mobile subscriptions around the world, according to estimates from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). That is equivalent to 87 percent of the world population, and it is a huge increase from 5.4 billion in 2010 and 4.7 billion mobile subscriptions in 2009.
“In the first half of 2012, the number of mobile Web users in China was 388 million, compared to 380 million desktop Web users, according to CNNIC.”
And at a global level, in a world with an estimated population approaching seven billion?
Inequities persist. The following table is based on data from Internet World Stats, which uses ITU and commercial statistics (all figures are rounded):
| Region | Population (est.) | Internet users | Penetration by % |
| Africa | 1,038 million | 140 million | 13.5 |
| Asia | 3,880 million | 1,017 million | 26.2 |
| Europe | 816 million | 501 million | 61.3 |
| Middle East | 216 million | 77 million | 35.6 |
| North America | 347 million | 273 million | 78.6 |
| L. America/Caribbean | 597 million | 236 million | 39.5 |
| Oceania/Australia | 35 million | 24 million | 67.5 |
| World | 6,930 million | 2,267 million | 32.7 |
In other words, only one in three people access the Internet, despite the rapid spread of mobile technology.
So every time someone says “Just go online and…” they are leaving out one in five U.S. residents, and two thirds of the people around the world.
The biggest single factor in this must, of course, be economic. This is not the place to go into details about disparities in income around the world, but the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will shed a lot of light on them.
* Vic Sutton is the current Chair of the Special Interest Group on Digital Equity (SIGDE) of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).
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The Power of Us 
Hi Bonnie, I saw your blog at edutopia.org. After 19 years in the corporate world, the last 12 as an executive in Telecoms (Brazil), I had the opportunity to see the changes done in someone’s life when they start to use the Internet. Learning, finding jobs, having a bank account, everything now is enhanced by connectivity. We have to find creative ways of not only connecting people, but also to properly use it to deliver education to all corners of the world. If you are interested, take a look at http://www.intelligentinclusion.com, and let’s share good ideas to promote this, not only in the US, but globally. Best Regards, Caetano
Hi Bonnie:
I tried to comment before, so this may be duplicate.
After spending more than 19 years in the corporate world, and the last 12 in the Telecoms industry, I had the opportunity to see the impacts that connecting to the Internet have on people. I led a survey with lower income people here in Brazil, and the results were so interesting, that I decided to set up a blog to foster the reduction of the digital divide. If you are interested, take a look at the post http://intelligentinclusion.com/2012/05/what-is-the-status-of-global-digital-inclusion/
where I tried to show the current status of the digital divide. Keep us the good work, Best Regards, Caetano
thank you… let’s continue to strive and make change.. Bonnie