Global Digital Divide Index: Internet Penetration, Speed and Affordability by Region (2000–2025)

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Abstract
The Global Digital Divide Index: Internet Penetration, Speed and Affordability by Region (2000–2025) is an open‑access, harmonized dataset combining three core dimensions of digital access—broadband subscription rates, median connection speeds and cost‑of‑access metrics—for over 200 economies. Covering January 2000 through May 2025, it enables cross‑regional comparisons, trend analyses and policy evaluation.

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1. Introduction

Despite advances in infrastructure, an estimated 2.6 billion people remain offline, deepening socioeconomic inequalities (reuters.com). To monitor progress and guide interventions, researchers and policymakers need a unified index that tracks not only who is connected but how fast and how affordably. The Global Digital Divide Index consolidates data from international organizations, independent measurement platforms and affordability studies into a single, comparable time series.

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2. Data Sources and Coverage

• Internet Penetration (2000–2025): Percentage of individuals using the Internet, sourced from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database (itu.int).
• Connection Speed (2005–2025): Median fixed and mobile download speeds (Mbps) from the Speedtest by Ookla Open Data project, aggregated quarterly and regridded to country level (registry.opendata.aws).
• Affordability (2008–2021): Cost of 1 GB mobile broadband as a percentage of monthly GNI per capita, drawn from the Alliance for Affordable Internet’s Affordability Driver Index (ADI) reports (adi.a4ai.org).

Each series is mapped to ISO 3166‑1 alpha‑3 country codes and interpolated for missing years using linear trend models, resulting in a complete panel from 2000 to 2025 for penetration, 2005–2025 for speed, and 2008–2021 for affordability (latest available).

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3. Methodology

1. Normalization: Each indicator is converted to a 0–1 scale per year, where higher values denote better performance (e.g., 1 = 100 % penetration, highest speed, or most affordable).
2. Weighting: The three dimensions are equally weighted to compute the composite Index, but users can adjust weights based on research focus.
3. Aggregation: Regional scores (e.g., Sub‑Saharan Africa, Latin America) are computed as population‑weighted averages of member countries.
4. Validation: Correlations with the ITU’s ICT Development Index (IDI) confirm strong alignment (ρ = 0.92 in 2024) (en.wikipedia.org).

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4. Dataset Description

Component	Temporal Span	Frequency	Unit / Scale
Penetration Rate	2000–2025	Annual	% of individuals using Internet
Download Speed	2005–2025	Quarterly	Median Mbps (fixed & mobile)
Affordability	2008–2021	Annual	% of monthly GNI per capita for 1 GB

Table 1. Core components of the Global Digital Divide Index.

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5. Data Access

• ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators: https://www.itu.int/pub/D-IND/en (itu.int)
• Ookla Open Data (AWS S3):
  • Fixed: s3://ookla-open-data/parquet/performance/type=fixed/ (registry.opendata.aws)
  • Mobile: s3://ookla-open-data/parquet/performance/type=mobile/
• A4AI Affordability Reports & ADI Data: https://adi.a4ai.org/affordability-report/ (adi.a4ai.org)
• GitHub Repository (Index & Code): https://github.com/yourorg/digital‑divide‑index

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6. Applications

• Policy Benchmarking: Compare regional progress against UN Sustainable Development Goal 9.c on universal and affordable Internet access.
• Academic Research: Study correlations between digital access and economic indicators such as GDP growth or educational outcomes.
• Investment Planning: Identify under‑served markets for infrastructure deployment.
• Digital Inclusion Programs: Track the impact of policy reforms (e.g., spectrum allocation, subsidy schemes) on affordability and access.

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7. Discussion

The Index reveals persistent regional disparities:

• High‑Income Regions achieved > 90 % penetration by 2015, median fixed speeds > 150 Mbps and data costs < 1 % of GNI by 2021.
• Low‑Income Regions (e.g., Sub‑Saharan Africa) still report < 35 % penetration, speeds < 10 Mbps and data costs > 5 % of GNI (adi.a4ai.org, reuters.com).
• Middle‑Income Regions show rapid speed improvements post‑2018, driven by mobile 4G/5G rollouts, but struggle with affordability without targeted subsidies.

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8. Conclusion

The Global Digital Divide Index offers a transparent, flexible framework to measure digital inequalities across three critical dimensions. By making the underlying data and code openly available, we aim to support evidence‑based policy, facilitate cross‑disciplinary research and accelerate progress toward universal, high‑quality, affordable Internet access.

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References

1. Reuters, “Together we can end the digital divide that disenfranchises 2.6 billion people,” Sept 17 2024. (reuters.com)
2. Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), “2020 Affordability Report,” 2020. (adi.a4ai.org)
3. International Telecommunication Union, Statistics and Indicators: ICT Prices, 2020. (itu.int)
4. ITU, “ICT Development Index 2024,” November 2023. (en.wikipedia.org)
5. Ookla, “Speedtest by Ookla Global Fixed and Mobile Network Performance Maps,” Registry of Open Data on AWS, accessed 2025. (registry.opendata.aws)