Digital revolution slipping further away from billions of the globe’s poorest, data shows
The rate at which the world is getting online has dropped since 2015. Data from the UN shows that women and the rural poor are the ones missing out
The growth of internet access around the world has slowed dramatically, according to new data, suggesting the digital revolution will remain a distant dream for billions of the poorest and most isolated people on the planet.
The striking trend, described in an unpublished report shared with the Guardian, shows the rate at which the world is getting online has fallen sharply since 2015, with women and the rural poor substantially excluded from education, business and other opportunities the internet can provide.
The slowdown is described in an analysis of UN data that will be published next month by the Web Foundation, an organisation set up by the inventor of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
The data shows that growth in global internet access dropped from 19 per cent in 2007 to less than 6 per cent last year.
“We underestimated the slowdown and the growth rate is now really worrying,” says Dhanaraj Thakur, research director at the Web Foundation.
“The problem with having some people online and others not is that you increase the existing inequalities. If you’re not part of it, you tend to lose out.”
As our daily lives become increasingly digital, these offline populations will continue to be pushed farther to the margins of society.