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This indicator highlights the importance of Internet use as a development enabler and helps to measure the digital divide, which, if not properly addressed, will aggravate inequalities in all development domains.

The indicator proportion of individuals using the Internet is defined as the proportion of individuals who used the Internet from any location in the last three months. The proportion of individuals using the Internet is an established indicator and also one of the three ICT-related Millennium Development Goal (MDG) indicators (for Target 8F). It is part of the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development's Core List of Indicators, which has been endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission (last time in 2014). It is also included in the ITU ICT Development Index, and thus considered a key metric for international comparisons of ICT developments.

Telecom Companies, Statistical Institute of Belize

Telecom Companies, Statistical Institute of Belize

Annual

Percentage (%)

The Internet has become an increasingly important tool to access public information, which is a relevant means to protect fundamental freedoms. The number of Internet users has increased substantially over the last decade and access to the Internet has changed the way people live, communicate, work and do business.

Despite growth in networks, services and applications, information and communication technology (ICT) access and use is still far from equally distributed, and many people cannot yet benefit from the potential of the Internet. Classificatory variables for individuals using the Internet –such as age, sex, education level or labour force status – can help identify digital divides in individuals using the Internet. This information can contribute to the design of targeted policies to overcome those divides.

The Internet is a worldwide public computer network. It provides access to a number of communication services including the World Wide Web and carries e-mail, news, entertainment and data files, irrespective of the device used (not assumed to be only via a computer - it may also be by mobile telephone, tablet, PDA, games machine, digital TV etc.). Access can be via a fixed or mobile network.

For countries that collect this data on the proportion of individuals using the Internet through an official survey, and if data allow breakdown and disaggregation, the indicator can be broken down by region (geographic and/or urban/rural), by sex, by age group, by educational level, by labour force status, and by occupation. ITU collects data for all of these breakdowns from countries.

For countries that collect data on this indicator through an official survey, this indicator is calculated by dividing the total number of in-scope individuals using the Internet (from any location) in the last 3 months by the total number of in-scope individuals. For countries that have not carried out a survey, data are estimated (by ITU) based on the number of Internet subscriptions and other socioeconomic indicators (GNI per capita) and on the time series data.

Internet uptake is a key indicator tracked by policy makers and others to measure the development of the information society and the growth of Internet content – including user-generated content – provides access to increasing amounts of information and services.

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All the metadata shown in this document was gathered from United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.