ICT indices available online

Source: International Telecommunication Union (ITU) / Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion (KADO) - Digital Opportunity Platform.^[1]

The DOI is compiled for 180 countries and published annually in the World Information Society Report.^[2]

The DOI is based on eleven core ICT indicators grouped in three clusters:^[3]

i) Opportunity:
• a. Percentage of population in areas covered by mobile cellular telephony (not necessarily subscribers)
• b. Internet access tariffs as a percentage of per capita income
• c. Mobile cellular tariffs as a percentage of per capita income
ii) Infrastructure:
• a. Proportion of households with a fixed line telephone
• b. Proportion of households with a computer
• c. Proportion of households with internet access at home
• d. Mobile cellular subscribers per 100 inhabitants
• e. Mobile internet subscribers per 100 inhabitants
iii) Utilisation:
• a. Proportion of individuals that used the internet
• b. Ratio of fixed broadband subscribers to total internet subscribers
• c. Ratio of mobile broadband subscribers to total mobile subscribers

The indicators are averaged within each category and categories are averaged to obtain the DOI value.

The index ranges between 0 and 1, where 1 would be “complete digital opportunity”.

Source: The World Bank - Knowledge for Development Programme.^[4]

The KEI is compiled for a group of 128 countries which includes “most of the developed (OECD) economies and over 90 developing countries.”

The KEI is calculated based on the average of the normalised (on a scale of 0 to 10) performance scores of a country or region on all four pillars related to the knowledge economy, as identified by the World Bank’s Knowledge Assessment Methodology (KAM).^[5] For the purposes of calculating the KEI, each pillar is represented by three key variables:^[6]

i) Economic incentive and institutional regime:
• a. Tariff & non-tariff barriers
• b. Regulatory quality
• c. Rule of law
ii) Education and human resources:
• a. Adult literacy rate
• b. Secondary enrolment
• c. Tertiary enrolment
iii) The innovation system:
• a. Researchers in R&D
• b. Patent applications granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office
• c. Scientific and technical journal articles
iv) Information and communication technology:
• a. Telephones per 1,000 people
• b. Computers per 1,000 people
• c. Internet users per 10,000 people

Source: World Economic Forum (WEF).^[8]

The NRI covers 122 countries and is published annually in the Global Information Technology Report.^[9]

The NRI is composed of three component indexes which assess: the environment for ICT offered by a given country or community, the readiness of the community's key stakeholders – individuals, business and governments – and the usage of ICT among these stakeholders.

These component indexes are, in turn, each obtained from three subindexes:

i) Environment:
• a. Market environment
• b. Political and regulatory environment
• c. Infrastructure environment
ii) Readiness:
• a. Individual readiness
• b. Business readiness
• c. Government readiness
iii) Usage:
• a. Individual usage
• b. Business usage
• c. Government usage

The NRI subindixes are composed of 67 different indicators. In order to calculate the index, the data are first transformed on a scale of 1 to 7. Next, each of the subindexes is computed as the mathematical average of the variables composing it. The same approach is used to calculate the component indexes, averaging the subindexes. Finally, the NRI is computed as an average of the three component indexes.^[10]

The NRI uses a combination of survey, quantitative and qualitative indicator data. Quantitative (“hard”) data is obtained from international multilateral agencies (such as the World Bank and the ITU), while qualitative (“soft”) indicators are subjective data gathered from opinion surveys conducted by the World Economic Forum as part of their research for the Global Competitiveness Report.

Source: UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).^[12]

The Index of ICT Diffusion was compiled for 180 countries and published in 2006 in the Digital Divide Report.

The Index of ICT Diffusion is designed to evaluate ICT development using indicators of ICT diffusion across countries.^[13] It measures the average achievements in a country in two dimensions: Connectivity, aimed at measuring infrastructure development, and Access, aimed at describing the opportunity to take advantage of being connected.

i) Connectivity:
• a. Internet hosts per capita
• b. PCs per capita
• c. Telephone mainlines per capita
• d. Mobile subscribers per capita
ii) Access:
• a. Number of estimated internet users
• b. Adult literacy rate
• c. Cost of a local call
• d. GDP per capita

An index score is calculated for each of these indicators by applying the following formula: value achieved / maximum reference value. Connectivity and Access indices are then calculated as an average of index scores of their respective components and the Index of ICT Diffusion is itself an average of these two dimensions.

Source: United Nations E-Government Readiness Knowledge Base (UNKB).^[15]

The UN E-Government Readiness Index was compiled for 191 UN member countries and published in 2005 the Global E-Government Readiness Report.^[16]

Along with an assessment of website development patterns in a country for provision of information, products and services, the E-government Readiness Index incorporates access characteristics, such as infrastructure and educational levels, to reflect how a country is using information technologies to promote access and inclusion of its people.

The E-government Readiness Index is a composite index comprising: the Web Measure

Index, the Telecommunication Infrastructure Index and the Human Capital Index:^[17]

i) Web Measure Index

This index is based on a five-stage model, which is ascending in nature, and builds upon the previous level of sophistication of a state’s online presence. Assessments are based on a questionnaire, which allows for only a binary value to the indicator based on the presence/absence of specific electronic facilities/services available.

ii) Telecommunication Infrastructure Index

This is a composite weighted average index of six primary indices based on basic infrastructural indicators, which define a country’s ICT infrastructure capacity. These are:

• a. PCs per 1,000 people
• b. Internet users per 1,000 people
• c. Telephone lines per 1,000 people
• d. Online population
• e. Mobile phones per 1,000 people
• f. TVs per 1,000 people
iii) Human Capital Index

The data for this index relies on the UNDP’s Education Index, which is a composite of the adult literacy rate and the combined primary, secondary and tertiary gross enrolment ratio with two thirds weight given to adult literacy and one third to gross enrolment ratio.

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).^[18]

The EIU has published an annual e-readiness ranking since 2000. In 2006 the ranking – evaluating technological, economic, political and social assets – was compiled for 68 countries.^[19]

The EIU ranking model consists of nearly 100 separate quantitative and qualitative criteria, which are scored and organised into six primary categories. These are, in turn, weighted according to their assumed importance as influencing factors. The six categories (and their weight in the model) and criteria are as follows:

i) Connectivity and technology infrastructure (weight: 25%)

The category criteria include: narrowband penetration, broadband penetration, mobile-phone penetration, internet penetration, PC penetration, WiFi hotspot penetration, internet affordability and security of internet infrastructure.

ii) Business environment (weight: 20%)

Includes 70 indicators, covering criteria such as the strength of the economy, political stability, the regulatory environment, taxation, competition policy, the labour market, the quality of infrastructure, and openness to trade and investment.

iii) Consumer and business adoption (weight: 20%)

The category criteria include: national spending on information and communications technology as a proportion of GDP, level of e-business development, degree of online commerce, quality of logistics and delivery systems and availability of corporate finance.

iv) Legal and policy environment (weight: 15%)

The category criteria include: overall political environment, policy toward private property, government vision regarding digital-age advances, government financial support of internet infrastructure projects, effectiveness of traditional legal framework, laws covering the internet, level of censorship and ease of registering a new business.

v) Social and cultural environment (weight: 15%)

The category criteria include: educational level, internet/web literacy, degree of entrepreneurship, technical skills of workforce and degree of innovation.

vi) Supporting e-services (weight: 5%)

The category criteria include: availability of e-business consulting and technical support services, availability of back-office support and industry-wide standards for platforms and programming languages.