This new edition of Measuring Digital Development: Facts and Figures comes at an extraordinarily

challenging time for the international community. With the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc on lives, societies and economies around the world, many of our daily activities have moved online, throwing a sharp spotlight on global connectivity. If you are reading this, it means you are online – but what about the billions of people still not fortunate enough to be able to connect?

Facts and Figures 2020 reveals that people in rural areas continue to face greater challenges than people in urban areas in terms of remaining connected during the lockdown, especially in developing economies. Large swathes of the rural landscape are still not covered by mobile broadband networks, and fewer households in these areas have access to the Internet. 

Also worrying, the rollout of communications infrastructure is slowing. Since growth in communications infrastructure deployment was already showing signs of slowing in 2019, it is still too early to tell whether growth has stalled because of the pandemic, or whether there are other factors at play.

This new edition of Facts and Figures also finds that mobile cellular subscriptions have been declining for the first time in history, and that growth in mobile broadband subscriptions is levelling out. Here, as before, it is not certain if this a result of the COVID-19 crisis: it will be interesting to see what happens once the world finally reverts to a more normal state of affairs.

On a more optimistic note, our research confirms that, where connectivity is available, and affordable, young people are enthusiastic adopters of technology and have relatively high levels of Internet use. While overall just over half of the global population is using the Internet, among young people aged 15 to 24 this rises to almost 70 per cent. This is particularly encouraging in view of the fast-growing youth demographic in much of the developing world, where digital technologies have the potential to become a major accelerator of economic growth and development and an important driver of progress towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

I am particularly pleased that, for the first time, this new edition of Facts and Figures contains statistics on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), in addition to our data on the 47 UN-designated Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

This important new edition, released at a time of unprecedented global uncertainty, explores what we know and can predict about those connected and those not connected – but with some reservations. Under normal circumstances, ITU’s expert team of statisticians uses the data submitted by Member States for the previous year to make predictions for the current year. However, with COVID-19 profoundly changing the use of digital devices and services, past trends are less useful for predicting present or future phenomena (see‘Methodology’ for more details).

Nevertheless, progress made prior to the pandemic will have influenced how well-prepared different parts of the world have been to face the challenges posed by COVID-19 and its associated disruptions to normal life, including the challenge of switching from ‘physical’ to ‘digital’. In the current context, this edition of Facts and Figures presents a mix of findings on digital readiness and resilience that offer a new perspective on the impact and importance of connectivity to every nation’s economy.