Big Bump in Emerging Country Online Usage

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A recent study by the Pew Research Center shows a big bump in emerging country online usage and smartphone ownership.

Pew surveyed over 45,000 people in 40 countries in 2015 and found that Internet usage in 21 countries with emerging or developing economies increased nine percentage points since Pew’s 2013 study, growing from a median of 45 percent to 54 percent. Much of the increase came from three emerging countries: Malaysia, Brazil and China.

By comparison, growth in the 11 advanced economies studied – mainly the U.S., Canada, Western Europe and developed Pacific countries - remained stable at 87 percent. The global median for Internet usage in all countries last year was 67 percent.

Smartphone ownership also ticked up significantly in the emerging and developing countries, advancing from a median of 21 percent in 2013 to 37 percent in 2015. The median smartphone ownership in advanced economies remained stable at 68 percent. Globally, the median for smartphone ownership last year was 43 percent.

One of the most interesting findings in Pew’s study was the frequency of social media usage by users in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. Internet and smartphone users in the Middle East are the most active on social media, a median usage of 86 percent, compared with the global median of 76 percent. Latin America’s median of 82 percent wasn’t far behind. The median in Africa was 76 percent. Western Europe checked in with the lowest median, just 65 percent, and the U.S. median was 71 percent.

Countries where smartphone ownership has been skyrocketing since 2013 are Turkey (up 42 percentage points), Malaysia (up 34 percentage points) and Chile and Brazil (both up 26 percentage points). South Korea heads the list of smartphone ownership. Last year, nearly nine-out-of-10 adults surveyed in that country said they owned a smartphone.

If you heavily rely on your smartphone, you may want to avoid Ethiopia (4 percent), Uganda (4 percent) and Tanzania (11 percent), countries with the lowest smartphone ownership.

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