ITU Reports Global Development in ICT

The evidence that developing information communication technology (ICT) is becoming an increasing priority around the world continues to mount. In illustrating this, the International Telecommunications Union (ITC) recently published its ICT Development Index (IDI) and indicated all but 1 of the 154 countries under study improved their levels of ICT from 2002 to 2007. These findings included data from UNESCO and were based off of 11 indicators that measured factors like ICT access as well as use and skills of the population.

The countries with the most developed ICT levels were largely from Northern Europe then primarily from other high-income regions in Europe, Asia, and North America. Sweden ranked highest with South Korea in second place; the United States was ranked 17th.

Growth, however, was not uniform. Eastern Europe, for example, had some of the highest IDI value gains that were fueled by dramatic development in the Baltic states and in Romania. In contrast, countries in Africa did show signs of improvement but had relatively little ICT development.

The IDI report also measured information regarding the development of the digital divide and includes a new ICT Price Basket that measures ICT tariffs across countries. The entire report can be found:

Here