Weather of Arabia - A third of the world's population in 2022 is still without an Internet connection, amid a slowdown in the pace of new communications, according to the latest statistics published by the United Nations on Friday, while the percentage of Internet access in the Arab region reaches 70%.
Internet surge slows, leaving 2.7 billion people offline in 2022
ℹ️ https://t.co/7Jg5lANI78 #ITUdata pic.twitter.com/YmJT3YU3Bi
— Int'l Telecommunication Union #Plenipot (@ITU) September 16, 2022
“Some 5.3 billion people around the world now use the Internet, and while growth remains encouraging, the trend is that in the absence of new investments in infrastructure and new momentum to attract new digital skills, opportunities to connect the world’s population with 2030 is increasingly declining,” according to AFP.
This comes as 2.7 billion people are still unable to access the Internet this year. There were 3 billion in 2021 and 3.6 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ITU has identified two major obstacles to its goal of making the world's population fully connected: the population that remains offline is also the most difficult to reach, as well as the difficulties of transitioning from simple network access to regular and easy access.
The Federation considers that obstacles are often underestimated: very slow connection speeds, very high prices for equipment and subscriptions, a lack of digital literacy or even cultural and language barriers, but also gender discrimination and sometimes a lack of access to electricity.
Africa remains the least connected of the six EU regions, with 40% of the population enjoying internet access, while the rate in Arab countries is 70%.
In the Asia Pacific region, internet penetration increased from 61% in 2021 to 64% this year. The Americas, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe record rates in excess of 80%.
Europe, the "old continent", ranks first with 89% of its population connected to the Internet.
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