Pakistan ranked 76th out of 100 countries in the 2020 Inclusive Internet Index, conducted by the UK-based The Economist Intelligence Unit and commissioned by Facebook.
The index assesses on four key categories – availability, affordability, relevance and readiness – and 56 indicators.
‘Availability’ means the quality and breath of infrastructure available for Internet usage, while ‘affordability’ examines the cost of access relative to income and competition in the market, ‘relevance’ looks at the existence and extent of local language content online and ‘readiness’ examines the skills, cultural acceptance and local supporting policies for the Internet.
“Pakistan falls into the last quartile of index countries overall,” states the report, “and it ranks 24th out of 26 Asian countries. Notable among its weaknesses are by far the largest gender gaps in the index, in both mobile and Internet access. Low levels of digital literacy and relatively poor network quality are major impediments to Internet inclusion.”
Under the sub-category of availability, the country ranked 86th, on affordability it ranked 57th, 71st on relevance and 64th on readiness.
Sweden ranked one number on the overall index, followed by New Zealand and the United States.