Measuring Internet Access in Sub-Saharan Africa

Frankfurter, Zoe ; Kokoszka, Klaudia ; Newhouse, David ; Silwal, Ani Rudra ; Tian, Siwei

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: POVERTY MEASUREMENT;    INTERNET ACCESS;    HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS;    INTERNET CONNECTION;    MOBILE PHONE;   

RP-ID  :  151394

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The ability to access the internet hasincreasingly become an important tool for poverty reduction,especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite itsimportance, measuring internet use in low-income settings isplagued by differences between data sources and lack of aconsistent definition of what it means exactly to haveinternet access. This Note compares different data sourcesavailable for monitoring internet use in Sub-Saharan Africa(SSA) and examines a database of household surveys from 25countries in the region. Three main findings emerge: (a)Household internet access may be less prevalent thancommonly believed, (b) Access rates are particularly low forrural and poorer households, and (c) Many people in SSAaccess the internet through mobile phones rather than a homecomputer. Although many questions remain unanswered,household surveys are an important and underutilizedresource to inform efforts to expand internet access in SSA.