Ending internet poverty

The variation in the affordability of internet access is the focus of the latest Internet Poverty Index (IPI) 2023, which projects the distribution of individuals who are priced out of a basic package of mobile internet and are thus living in internet poverty. Based on the latest IPI data, World Data Lab predicts that 1.05 billion people are currently living in internet poverty. Since 2015, the internet-poor population has decreased by 685 million or around 40 percent. The reduction in internet poverty has been driven by a universal decline in prices. Africa experienced the strongest reduction in prices; however, Africa remains home to the largest internet-poor population—524 million—given that it has the highest rates of conventional poverty. And while prices have decreased globally, there’s variation across countries and regions. Data from the IPI indicates that promoting a competitive market environment can be an effective way to drive down internet prices and improve the quality on offer as new service providers entering the market may invest in infrastructure expansions and look to acquire customers by offering competitive prices.

[Wolfgang Fengler is CEO of World Data Lab. Isabell Roitner-Fransecky is a data scientist at World Data Lab.]