The divide between internet connectivity in urban and rural areas remains wide in the world’s biggest economies.
More than 60 million urban Americans don’t have access to or can’t afford broadband internet
Population density in cities means the story isn’t rosy despite higher connectivity rates.
Rani Molla was a senior correspondent at Vox and has been focusing her reporting on the future of work. She has covered business and technology for more than a decade — often in charts — including at Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal.
About 44 percent of people on average living in rural areas in India, China, Brazil, Japan, Germany, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. don’t have access to or can’t afford broadband internet, according to a joint report released today by internet industry trade group Wireless Broadband Alliance and research firm IHS Markit.
That’s a 20 percentage point difference with the 24 percent of people who aren’t connected in urban areas of those countries.
In the U.S., that disparity isn’t as wide. About 23 percent of people in urban areas don’t have access to or can’t afford broadband versus 28 percent in rural areas.
But in absolute figures, it’s still noteworthy just how many people that comprises: that’s 62 million Americans in urban centers and 16 million in rural locations who can’t access fast internet.
The difference between rural and urban is more severe in big, developing countries like Brazil, India, and China. India has the biggest disparity out of the eight countries measured. Eighty-seven percent of India’s rural population doesn’t have access or can’t afford broadband internet compared with 31 percent in urban areas — a 56 percentage point difference.
The difference between the rate of rural and urban connectivity in the U.S. is smaller than in the other countries measured, besides the U.K. However, in overall internet connectivity rates and speed we lag other developed countries.
In general, the sheer size of a country as well as its population density are very important factors that determine broadband connectivity. In mature markets like the U.S. and in Europe, internet cost is a major barrier in urban areas while rural areas are blighted by a lack of available technology.
While the share of urban populations that aren’t connected to broadband is generally less than the share of unconnected rural populations, it’s important to note that cities are usually the main population centers.
That means — with the exception of India and China, which have huge rural populations — the actual number of unconnected individuals is often higher in cities. Indeed, people in urban areas without access to broadband represent the majority of a country’s total unconnected population.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
