As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, both economically and socially, technology adoption remains one of the defining factors in human progress. To that end, there has been a noticeable rise over the past two years in the percentage of people in the emerging and developing nations surveyed by Pew Research Center who say that they use the internet and own a smartphone. And while people in advanced economies still use the internet more and own more high-tech gadgets, the rest of the emerging world is catching up. 1
In 2013, a median of 45% across 21 emerging and developing countries reported using the internet at least occasionally or owning a smartphone. In 2015, that figure rose to 54%, with much of that increase coming from large emerging economies such as Malaysia, Brazil and China. By comparison, a median of 87% use the internet across 11 advanced economies surveyed in 2015, including the U.S. and Canada, major Western European nations, developed Pacific nations (Australia, Japan and South Korea) and Israel.2 This represents a 33-percentage-point gap compared with emerging and developing nations.
While internet access has been rising in emerging and developing nations, those worldwide who have internet access are voracious users. Roughly three-quarters of adult internet users across the 40 countries surveyed in 2015 say that they use the internet at least once a day, with majorities in many countries saying that they access the web “several times a day.”
Overall, internet users in emerging and developing countries are more likely to use social media compared with those in the developed world. It is important to remember, however, that internet access rates in the emerging and developing world still trail those of advanced economies, so the number of people participating in social networking is still smaller as a share of the total population in many of these emerging countries.
[tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1QqBIpD" alt="Richer nations tend to have higher internet access rates and higher reported smartphone ownership"]But as people in emerging and developing economies grow richer and become better educated, technology use is likely to grow. As in previous years, within every country surveyed with sufficient sample size to analyze, people with more education and higher incomes are more likely to use the internet or own a smartphone than those with lower incomes and less education. This is true in both the developing and developed world.
[tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1QqBIpD" alt="Global Millennials are more likely to be internet, smartphone users compared with older generations"]These are among the main findings of a newly released Pew Research Center survey conducted in 40 nations among 45,435 respondents from March 25 to May 27, 2015.
[interactive url="https://www.pewresearch.org/global/interactives/tech-adoption-table/" showtitle="h4"]Other key findings from our survey include:
- Smartphone ownership rates have skyrocketed in many countries since 2013. This includes increases of over 25 percentage points among the total population in large emerging economies such as Turkey (+42 points), Malaysia (+34), Chile (+26) and Brazil (+26).
- [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1QqBIpD" alt="South Korea stands out as the country with the highest smartphone ownership rate"]South Korea stands out as the country with the highest smartphone ownership rate, with 88% of respondents saying they own one. The countries with the least smartphone ownership rates are also among the poorest: Tanzania (11%), Uganda (4%) and Ethiopia (4%).
- In a number of emerging and developing countries, more people have access to the internet and are also using it more frequently. In 12 emerging nations surveyed in 2014 and 2015, there were significant increases in the share of adult internet users who say they access the internet several times a day, including in Nigeria (+20 points), Ghana (+19) and China (+13).
- There are gender gaps on many aspects of technology use. For example, in 20 nations, men are more likely than women to use the internet. These differences are especially stark in African nations. Elsewhere, equal shares of men and women use the internet. But large gender gaps also appear on reported smartphone ownership (men are more likely to own a smartphone) in many countries, including Mexico (+16), Nigeria (+13), Kenya (+12) and Ghana (+12).
