Impact of Digital Economy Varies Widely Throughout the World

A country’s ability to take advantage of information and communications technology in order to increase its competitiveness and well-being depends on its readiness quickly to implement and adopt new technologies as they appear. The World Economic Forum identifies this ability as network readiness, and in its 2016 “Global Information Technology Report” calculated a network readiness index (NRI) for 139 countries based on a country’s “preparedness to reap the benefits of emerging technologies and capitalize on the opportunities presented by the digital transformation and beyond.”

The index aggregates data from 53 indicators, organized on the basis of a networked readiness framework that incorporates four drivers, or subindexes:

• Environment subindex comprising political, regulatory, business and innovation environments
• Readiness subindex comprising infrastructure, affordability and skills
• Usage subindex comprising individual, business, and government usage
• Impact subindex comprising economic and social impacts

Developed countries where citizens enjoy high-incomes dominate the top of the list. This group is known as the “Advanced Economies” and includes 34 of 35 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member nations in the top 50 nations (the exception is Mexico, ranked 76th).

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Of the 32 nations categorized as Sub-Saharan Africa, 31 are among the bottom 39 ranked countries and just one, Mauritius in 49th, breaks into the top 50. This group dominates the bottom third of the list.

In between the top and bottom groups reside the world’s two largest developing nations, China at 59th and India at 91st. This middle group is dominated by Latin American and Asian nations that are often characterized as developing nations.

A few more highlights from the full report:

• While the United States ranks fifth overall, the country’s ranking in internet bandwidth per user dropped from 34th in 2013 to 42nd this year.
• Among the most improved since the 2015 report are the Slovak Republic (up 12 places in the rankings), Kuwait (up 11 places) and Italy (up 10 places).
• The United Kingdom ranks first globally in using the internet to interact with consumers (B2C) and second in business-to-business (B2B) interactions.

The report concludes:

[I]ndividual adoption is growing steadily across the globe as efforts continue to close the digital divide. Business executives are optimistic about their countries’ growing innovation capacities, yet the digital innovation impact is so far coming through much more strongly in some countries than in others—the gap between seven digital front runners and the followers is wide.

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The following list shows the ranking of all 139 countries in the report.

1. Singapore
2. Finland
3. Sweden
4. Norway
5. United States
6. Netherlands
7. Switzerland
8. United Kingdom
9. Luxembourg
10. Japan
11. Denmark
12. Hong Kong SAR
13. Korea, Rep.
14. Canada
15. Germany
16. Iceland
17. New Zealand
18. Australia
19. Chinese Taipei
20. Austria
21. Israel
22. Estonia
23. Belgium
24. France
25. Ireland
26. United Arab Emirates
27. Qatar
28. Bahrain
29. Lithuania
30. Portugal
31. Malaysia
32. Latvia
33. Saudi Arabia
34. Malta
35. Spain
36. Czech Republic
37. Slovenia
38. Chile
39. Kazakhstan
40. Cyprus
41. Russian Federation
42. Poland
43. Uruguay
44. Costa Rica
45. Italy
46. Macedonia, FYR
47. Slovak Republic
48. Turkey
49. Mauritius
50. Hungary
51. Montenegro
52. Oman
53. Azerbaijan
54. Croatia
55. Panama
56. Armenia
57. Mongolia
58. Georgia
59. China
60. Jordan
61. Kuwait
62. Thailand
63. Sri Lanka
64. Ukraine
65. South Africa
66. Romania
67. Trinidad and Tobago
68. Colombia
69. Bulgaria
70. Greece
71. Moldova
72. Brazil
73. Indonesia
74. Seychelles
75. Serbia
76. Mexico
77. Philippines
78. Morocco
79. Vietnam
80. Rwanda
81. Tunisia
82. Ecuador
83. Jamaica
84. Albania
85. Cape Verde
86. Kenya
87. Bhutan
88. Lebanon
89. Argentina
90. Peru
91. India
92. Iran, Islamic Rep.
93. El Salvador
94. Honduras
95. Kyrgyz Republic
96. Egypt
97. Bosnia and Herzegovina
98. Dominican Republic
99. Namibia
100. Guyana
101. Botswana
102. Ghana
103. Guatemala
104. Lao PDR
105. Paraguay
106. Côte d’Ivoire
107. Senegal
108. Venezuela
109. Cambodia
110. Pakistan
111. Bolivia
112. Bangladesh
113. Gambia, The
114. Tajikistan
115. Lesotho
116. Zambia
117. Algeria
118. Nepal
119. Nigeria
120. Ethiopia
121. Uganda
122. Zimbabwe
123. Mozambique
124. Cameroon
125. Gabon
126. Tanzania
127. Mali
128. Benin
129. Swaziland
130. Liberia
131. Nicaragua
132. Malawi
133. Myanmar
134. Guinea
135. Madagascar
136. Mauritania
137. Haiti
138. Burundi
139. Chad