The Global Information Society: a Statistical View

1. The Global Information Society:a Statistical View 2008 Global Eventon Measuring the Information Society Geneva, 27-29 May 2008 Sheridan Roberts

2. Introduction • This presentation introduces the first major statistical publication of the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development • The Global Information Society: a Statistical View • the publication has just been released and includes available statistics for the 41 core ICT indicators • data were presented by level of development, with some shown by region and some showing change over time. • An important aim of the publication is to show data availability and international comparability for the core indicators • another presentation in this meeting addresses data comparability and proposes some revisions to the core indicators • this presentation outlines data availability for the core indicators, presents the broad content of the publication and shows some results.

3. Broad structure and content of the Partnership publication • Opening material • preface, acknowledgments, contents • Chapter 1. Introduction • objectives, statistical standards for information society measurement, the Partnership and its activities, regional measurement initiatives. • Chapters 2 to 5. Data availability and statistical summary in respect of • ICT infrastructure and access • access to, and use of, ICT by households and individuals • use of ICT by businesses • the ICT-producing sector and international trade in ICT goods. • Chapter 6. ICT in education • describes work done on developing new core indicators for ICT in education and presents information on data availability • presents some data from a scoping study undertaken by UIS.

4. Broad structure and content of the Partnership publication (continued) • Chapter 7. Measuring the impact of ICT • describes why measuring the impact of ICT is challenging • briefly explores current work • includes some data on the impact of ICT on educational outcomes • provides suggestions for further statistical work in this area. • Chapter 8. Conclusions and future work of the Partnership • Annexes • Known availability of core ICT indicators for each economy • Core indicators on ICT infrastructure and access • Core indicators on access to, and use of, ICT by households and individuals • Core indicators on the use of ICT by businesses • Core indicators for the ICT sector and trade in ICT goods • OECD list of ICT goods (2003) • Bibliography and abbreviations

5. Availability of ICT indicators: ICT infrastructure and access • ICT infrastructure and access (A1–A12) • the indicators are collected by the ITU, mainly from telecommunication authorities and some operators • availability of the basic core ICT infrastructure and access indicators is quite good (most are available for >= three quarters of countries) • statistics for the two extended core indicators (and basic core indicator A10) are less available (available for 12% – 42% of countries) • availability is fairly even across different levels of development.

6. Some findings: ICT infrastructure and access

7. Some findings: ICT infrastructure and access

8. Availability of ICT indicators: Access to, and use of, ICT by households and individuals • Access to, and use of, ICT by households and individuals (HH1–HH13 and HHR1) • these are mainly produced from household surveys run by statistical agencies • most of the indicators are reasonably available for developed economies… • ..but not widely available for transition and developing economies • the household ICT access indicators are more available for developing economies than the individual use indicators.

9. Some findings: Access to ICT by households

10. Some findings: Access to ICT by households

11. Some findings: Use of ICT by individuals

12. Availability of ICT indicators: Use of ICT by businesses • Use of ICT by businesses (B1–B12) • these are mainly produced from business surveys run by statistical agencies • availability is similar to household indicators, with all the indicators available for a majority of developed economies and.. • ..successively lower availability for transition, developing and least developed economies (for which none of the core indicators are available).

13. Some findings: Use of ICT by businesses

14. Some findings: Use of ICT by businesses

15. Availability of ICT indicators: ICT sector • The ICT sector (ICT1 and ICT2) • statistics on the ICT sector are reasonably available for developed economies (about two thirds for each indicator) but less so for other economies • some of those economies have statistics for ICT manufacturing industries but not services • no data are available for the least developed economies.

16. Some findings: ICT sector

17. Availability of ICT indicators: trade in ICT goods • Trade in ICT goods (ICT3 and ICT4) • statistics on ICT goods trade come from international goods trade statistics collected by customs organisations/statistical agencies and provided to the UNSD (UN COMTRADE) • the trade core indicators are available for more than two thirds of countries overall • availability is reasonably even across different levels of development.

18. Some findings: Trade in ICT goods

19. Some findings: Trade in ICT goods

20. The future… • As the previous slides show, availability of data for many of the core ICT indicators could be improved. • The Partnership is working towards this goal by providing technical assistance to countries’ statistical agencies and raising awareness among policy-makers about the importance of the core indicators • and, particularly, the need for internationally comparable data for policy making purposes. • Proposals to revise some of the core indicators are being presented at this meeting • it is hoped that they will improve the availability and comparability of ICT data.

21. Thank you • Are there any questions? • You can contact me on sheridanroberts@hotmail.com