More than half of Filipinos can’t afford internet connection: ‘Internet poor’ study

Philippines has one of the largest internet access inequalities in the world The Philippines leads Southeast Asia in the number of so-called “Internet poor” who cannot afford the minimum internet packages for personal use. That’s the result of the latest Internet Poverty Index from Vienna, Austria-based data firm World Data Lab, which focuses on modeling and forecasting spending power and population dynamics across multiple industries around the world. The Philippines leads Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and even Myanmar and Cambodia on the list, while Malaysia,…

The Philippines leads Southeast Asia in the number of so-called “Internet poor” who cannot afford the minimum internet packages for personal use.

Here are the latest results Internet Poverty Index Presented by World Data Lab, a data enterprise based in Vienna, Austria, that focuses on modeling and forecasting spending power and population dynamics across multiple industries around the world.

The Philippines ranks ahead of Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and even Myanmar and Cambodia on the list, while Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei are the “Internet richest” countries in the region.

Globally – out of the 169 countries included in the index – the Philippines ranks seventh with the most “Internet poor” and 38^th as part of the population. That means more than 58 million Filipinos can’t afford an internet package, let alone a device to use it.

Seventh ‘Internet Poorest’ Country in the World

The World Data Lab measures the number of people who cannot afford the basic connectivity package – currently set at 1.5 GB per month, with a minimum download speed of 3 megabits per second (equivalent to 6 seconds to load a standard web page).

Overall, the World Data Lab found that as of April this year, nearly 1.4 billion people around the world lived without the internet. Of those affected by internet poverty, about 51% or about 715 million people live in Nigeria, India, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Brazil, Pakistan, Philippines, Tanzania, Indonesia and South Africa.