The digital divide: global and regional ICT leaders and followers

Abstract

The “digital divide” has sparked serious debates along the lines of economic disparity among world nations. Many in academics and policy circles believe that the digital gap could further widen the economic gap between developed versus developing nations. Among the components that are taken into consideration for measuring and analyzing the digital divide between countries, the information and communication technologies (ICTs) is the key component. This paper adds to the existing body of knowledge on the issue of regional and global digital divide by profiling 192 member countries of the United Nations based on their ICT indicators. Using clustering and statistical analysis, our results identify “leaders” and “followers” in ICT infrastructure and utilization at both regional and global settings.

Mina Balliamoune-Lutz is the accepting Associate Editor for this article.

Keywords:

• digital divide
• ICT infrastructure
• cluster analysis

Notes

Mina Balliamoune-Lutz is the accepting Associate Editor for this article.

The UN E-Government Survey 2008: From E-Government to Connected Governance assesses the e-government readiness of the 192 Member States of the UN according to a quantitative composite index of e-readiness based on website assessment, telecommunication infrastructure, and human resource endowment.